game of thrones book review

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin book review

I reviewed A Game of Thrones back in 2021 quite early on after I started this blog – since then I’ve done a reread and decided I want to give it another crack. I wrote my review based on memories of about two years after I’d read the book. This updated review is based on a reread I finished literally days ago.

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A Game of Thrones is the first book in the epic A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin – if you’ve not heard of it then I imagine you’ve been living under a rock. The book series has been turned into arguably the biggest television series ever made – pioneering the way of not only fantasy TV series but large-budget fantasy TV series.

A Game of Thrones introduces us to the land of Westeros and its families, cultures and political goings-on. It introduces us to the Lannisters, the Starks and the Targaryens and other families throughout Westeros.

Plot – 4.5/5

You can’t really describe what happens in A Game of Thrones as it’s so long that many things happen. Essentially everything starts off quite calm, controlled and peaceful, however, a large secret comes to light and things start to spiral out of control. Old friends become enemies and the peace is eventually broken, causing the land of Westeros to become as unbalanced as it has been for decades.

On top of this, there are whisperings of dark creatures and beings not seen for hundreds of years being seen by travellers, suggesting other things are at unrest beyond “the wall” too. it’s all very interesting and exciting to read. It’s a storyline with lots of twists and turns where Martin isn’t afraid to kill of the characters you like or keep those you dislike alive.

George R.R. Martin does an incredible job of throwing us around to different characters involved in different plot points but making us feel at the same time that they’re all connected. Despite being a book that focuses on different points of view, you feel like you’re following one continent move at the same time.

Characters – 5/5

When I first read A Game of Thrones , I had no perspective as to what makes well-written characters or not. George R.R. Martin has carved some truly fantastic characters in this book. He could have taken the easy fantasy option of having “a chosen one” and the main villain but instead, he’s developed families, genuine relationships, flawed heroes and detestable characters. There’ll be characters in this book who you can’t help but have respect for and others for who you spend your time hoping to meet an unfortunate end.

Tyrion is probably my favourite character – as he is many. He’s smart, witty, and sometimes rude but has a very strict moral compass. Tyrion is a dwarf and his life has seen his lack of height make him feel that he must make up for it with a sharp mind. There’s an argument here that because he’s the smartest, this makes him make some of the best and wisest decisions.

What I love about many of the characters is that nearly all of their actions are steeped in reason. Joffrey for example makes cruel and awful decisions because he is young, naive and has no idea how to rule. He believes ruling by force is the best way as it seems the easiest way to get people to obey you. However, I can see in the future how this might fail him.

There are copious amounts of other characters I’m looking forward to seeing the rise and fall of too. Yes, I’ve watched a couple of series of the TV series, but I’m still excited to read about them all as I imagine the books portray them differently. In fact, I know this to be even more true in the latter books.

Summary – 5/5

A Game of Thrones is the best opening book to a fantasy series you’ll find. It has become a sensation for a reason – the TV series is brilliant, yes. But the first book is probably better. You get such a great feeling of grandeur but also a really personal feeling from some of the characters. One moment you’re learning of great wars, deep histories and long legacies and the next you’re sitting by a campfire as Tyrion Lannister tells Jon Snow why he reads so many books. It’s an epic in every sense of the word and is, without a doubt, an absolute must for any fantasy fan and even those who don’t think fantasy is their bag.

One thought on “ A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin book review ”

I found the first 3 books in a “little neighborhood library” on the sidewalk yesterday, so I figured “why not” and grabbed them. So far I have read the prologue from the first book, in which there are 3 characters: Gared (in his 50s, 40 years of which serving in the Night’s Watch), Will (caught poaching and drafted 4 years prior to the Night’s Watch), and Ser Waymar Royce, 18 years old lordling heir and commander of this latest ranging in pursuit of some wildlings who are leading them further and further north. Will had just returned from tracking the wildlings 2 miles from their present location, seen they were all dead, and returned to the group. Gared figured they had died from the cold (he himself lost both ears and some fingers and toes from some previous exposure), but Royce asks Will about the Wall; Will says it had been “weeping” meaning it wasn’t possibly cold enough to kill the wildlings. So Royce demands they go to see, remarks that Gared had been “unmanned” by fear of the dark for his insistence on building a fire, and Gared barely holds himself back from murdering Royce then and there. Then Royce and Will go to see the dead wildlings, only now there are none left, just one weapon (a valuable war ax) and Royce instructs Will to climb up a tree to see what he can. Meanwhile some ghostly foe comes and approaches Royce with some kind of magic sword. Will sees more ghosts coming but fears to shout a warning since he is sure to die. Royce and the ghost have a duel, Royce gets hit by the ghostly sword and it cuts him through his mail armor, he charges and hits the ghost sword with all his might, but his own steel sword shatters into a zillion pieces. All the ghosts advance and chop him up and then they all disappear somewhere. Will eventually climbs down and recovers Royce’s broken hilt for evidence, but before he can leave Royce rises up and is towering over him, and strangles him dead, too.

I have a few issues with this first scene, which are: why is Royce ignoring his more experienced companion’s better advice, and why are his companions daft enough to let Royce out-reason them about the cold, and how can Will climb up a tree and none of the ghosts can see him up there, and how can Royce shatter a steel broadsword at all, he must have superhuman strength to possibly do that, and why does he come back to life and strangle Will out?

I’m reading this story and already I’m appalled at how sloppily it is written and how uninteresting it is. I think I’m like Gared, I have half a mind to throw these books out and find something better.

A GAME OF THRONES

From the a song of ice and fire series , vol. 1.

by George R.R. Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 12, 1996

After a long silence ( Portraits of his Children , stories, 1987), the author of the cult novel The Armageddon Rag (1983) returns with the first of a fantasy series entitled, insipidly enough, A Song of Ice and Fire. In the Seven Kingdoms, where the unpredictable seasons may last decades, three powerful families allied themselves in order to smash the ruling Targaryens and depose their Mad King, Aerys II. Robert Baratheon claimed the throne and took to wife Tywin Lannister's daughter, Cersei; Ned Stark returned north to gloomy Winterfell with its massive, ancient Wall farther to the north that keeps wildings and unspeakable creatures from invading. Some years later, Robert, now drunk and grossly fat, asks Ned to come south and help him govern; reluctantly, since he mistrusts the treacherous Lannisters, Ned complies. Honorable Ned soon finds himself caught up in a whirl of plots, espionage, whispers, and double-dealing and learns to his horror that the royal heir, Joffrey, isn't Robert's son at all but, rather, the product of an incestuous union between the Queen and her brother Jaime—who murdered the Mad King and earned the infamous nickname Kingslayer. Ned attempts to bargain with Cersei and steels himself to tell Robert—but too late. Swiftly the Lannisters murder the King, consign Ned to a dungeon, and prepare to seize the throne, opposed only by the remaining Starks and Baratheons. On the mainland, meanwhile, the brutal and stupid Viserys Targaryen sells his sister Dany to a barbarian horse-warrior in return for a promise of armies to help him reconquer the Seven Kingdoms. A vast, rich saga, with splendid characters and an intricate plot flawlessly articulated against a backdrop of real depth and texture. Still, after 672 dense pages, were you expecting a satisfying resolution? You won't get it: Be prepared for a lengthy series with an indefinitely deferred conclusion.

Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1996

ISBN: 0-553-10354-7

Page Count: 672

Publisher: Spectra/Bantam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996

FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY

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THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE

by Samantha Shannon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2019

A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.

After 1,000 years of peace, whispers that “the Nameless One will return” ignite the spark that sets the world order aflame.

No, the Nameless One is not a new nickname for Voldemort. Here, evil takes the shape of fire-breathing dragons—beasts that feed off chaos and imbalance—set on destroying humankind. The leader of these creatures, the Nameless One, has been trapped in the Abyss for ages after having been severely wounded by the sword Ascalon wielded by Galian Berethnet. These events brought about the current order: Virtudom, the kingdom set up by Berethnet, is a pious society that considers all dragons evil. In the East, dragons are worshiped as gods—but not the fire-breathing type. These dragons channel the power of water and are said to be born of stars. They forge a connection with humans by taking riders. In the South, an entirely different way of thinking exists. There, a society of female mages called the Priory worships the Mother. They don’t believe that the Berethnet line, continued by generations of queens, is the sacred key to keeping the Nameless One at bay. This means he could return—and soon. “Do you not see? It is a cycle.” The one thing uniting all corners of the world is fear. Representatives of each belief system—Queen Sabran the Ninth of Virtudom, hopeful dragon rider Tané of the East, and Ead Duryan, mage of the Priory from the South—are linked by the common goal of keeping the Nameless One trapped at any cost. This world of female warriors and leaders feels natural, and while there is a “chosen one” aspect to the tale, it’s far from the main point. Shannon’s depth of imagination and worldbuilding are impressive, as this 800-pager is filled not only with legend, but also with satisfying twists that turn legend on its head. Shannon isn’t new to this game of complex storytelling. Her Bone Season novels ( The Song Rising , 2017, etc.) navigate a multilayered society of clairvoyants. Here, Shannon chooses a more traditional view of magic, where light fights against dark, earth against sky, and fire against water. Through these classic pairings, an entirely fresh and addicting tale is born. Shannon may favor detailed explication over keeping a steady pace, but the epic converging of plotlines at the end is enough to forgive.

Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-63557-029-8

Page Count: 848

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY

More by Samantha Shannon

by Samantha Shannon

THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA

by TJ Klune ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.

A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.

Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune ( The Art of Breathing , 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Tor

Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | FANTASY

More by TJ Klune

by TJ Klune

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REVIEW: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Book Reviews
July 6, 2022
1,857 views
By John Mauro

Last Updated on February 12, 2024

Life is full of insignificant events, small perturbations that are rarely of any consequence. But occasionally the conditions are right for a small perturbation to escalate into something that alters the entire world, leaving a permanent mark on history. Whether it’s the start of a World War or the beginning of a global pandemic, the impact of a single, seemingly insignificant event can grow to outsize proportions, pushing the world out of its delicate balance.

A cover for A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

The impact of A Game of Thrones on the world of fantasy cannot be overstated. Its publication in 1996 brought about an irreversible step change in fantasy literature, which for decades had been following the blueprint laid out by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings .

Since its release in the 1950s, The Lord of the Rings had become the single most influential work of fantasy ever written, spawning countless imitations, none of which could reach the same level of impact achieved by Tolkien. Tolkien’s cultural influence stretched far beyond the world of literature, encompassing cinema (Peter Jackson), music (Led Zeppelin), and any number of role-playing games, including both tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons and video games such as the Final Fantasy series.

Tolkien combined expansive, detailed worldbuilding with an epic good-vs-evil struggle of biblical proportions. Although Frodo struggles mightily against the corrupting power of the One Ring, there is never any doubt that he is on the side of good, a Christ figure who is willing to sacrifice himself to save others. Only two notable characters in The Lord of the Rings exhibit discernable gray morality. The most obvious of these is Gollum/Sméagol, but his gray morality is just a superposition of two dichotomous personas, one of which is good (Sméagol) and the other evil (Gollum). The other character, of course, is Boromir, who is fundamentally good but ultimately seduced by the Ring, becoming the Judas Iscariot figure of the Fellowship.

In A Game of Thrones , George R.R. Martin embraced Tolkienesque worldbuilding while taking an antithetical approach to character morality. Both Middle-earth and Westeros feel authentic because they are so fully realized, complete with their own history and culture, giving the reader a fully immersive experience where they can suspend their own reality while diving into a richly detailed new world.

The main difference comes in the gritty approach that Martin has taken toward character morality, making A Game of Thrones one of the first true grimdark fantasies. Whereas Middle-earth is a world of black and white, Martin uses a full palette of gray to paint his cast of characters. If Tolkien has written an allegory for the epic battle of Christ vs Satan, then George R.R. Martin is more interested in the sneering Pontius Pilate, questioning the meaning of truth itself.

In presenting a grittier, more realistic approach to fantasy, A Game of Thrones became part of a larger cultural movement that emerged in the 1990s. For example, at around the same time, grunge bands such as Soundgarden and Alice in Chains came to prominence, bringing an unapologetic rawness and honesty to a music scene that, in the preceding decade, had been hiding behind a façade of synthetic sounds, big hair, and heavy makeup.

More than a quarter century later, A Game of Thrones has rightfully become one of the most respected and influential works of fantasy. A Song of Ice and Fire has sold close to 100 million books worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling series of all time.

Rereading A Game of Thrones , it’s easy to see why. George R.R. Martin is an outstanding writer. Given the complexity of the world and the plot, this book could have easily become unreadable in less capable hands. But Martin does a wonderful job introducing us to the characters and worldbuilding in a natural and accessible fashion. A Game of Thrones is never a chore, and the pacing is remarkably consistent throughout the book.

Although A Game of Thrones is fantasy, the magical elements are of secondary importance, at least in this first volume of A Song of Ice and Fire. Instead, A Game of Thrones is driven by its wonderful cast of characters. George R.R. Martin has crafted some of the finest characters in all of fantasy, including the inimitable Tyrion Lannister, whose astute political skills are coupled with a keen wit and a genuine kindness toward the less fortunate.

One of the interesting choices made by George R.R. Martin is that, out of the eight point-of-view characters in A Game of Thrones , five are children. Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are both 14 years old at the beginning of A Song of Ice and Fire. Among the Stark children, Sansa is 11, Arya is 9, and Bran is 7. Beyond these point-of-view characters, Robb Stark is 14 and Joffrey Baratheon is 12. This may be surprising for fans of the HBO series , since all the actors portraying these characters were significantly older than the characters themselves. Considering their young age, the terrible situations experienced by these children in A Game of Thrones become all the more harrowing. I particularly admire the way Daenerys overcomes unspeakably terrible abuse to grow into the strong, self-assured leader that she becomes.

We are living the legacy of A Game of Thrones now, with its indelible impact on both grimdark fantasy and epic fantasy in general. One prominent example is The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, which is clearly influenced by the narrative structure, expansive worldbuilding, and character-driven plot of A Game of Thrones . Both are full of political intrigue and focus on sparring factions of a fractured society who are fighting each other when they should be focused on a more sinister enemy posing an existential threat to their civilization.

Does this remind you of anyplace else? Although A Game of Thrones emerged in the 1990s, I would argue that it is even more relevant today in our own time wracked by political extremism and a breakdown of global order, where irrational nationalism trumps our ability to confront the serious existential threats facing our society.

A Game of Thrones is one of the finest and most influential books ever published, and its impact only continues to grow. If you have somehow put off reading A Game of Thrones , please put aside whatever reservations you may have and just dive in. You won’t be disappointed.

Read A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

John Mauro lives in a world of glass amongst the hills of central Pennsylvania. When not indulging in his passion for literature or enjoying time with family, John is training the next generation of materials scientists at Penn State University, where he teaches glass science and materials kinetics. John also loves cooking international cuisine and kayaking the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.

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Book Review

A game of thrones — “a song of ice and fire” series.

George R.R. Martin

Readability Age Range

Bantam Spectra, a division of Bantam Books, owned by Random House
Locus Award, Best Fantasy Novel, 1997

Year Published

This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine . It is the first book in “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.

Plot Summary

Just outside the kingdom of Winterfell, Ser Waymar Royce, Will and Gared, three members of the Night’s Watch, investigate some mysterious deaths. Will previously found a camp full of dead bodies, but the bodies have now vanished. Royce is attacked and killed by supernatural beings called the Others, but he rises from the dead to kill Will. Gared flees.

Bran Stark is a young boy who watches his father, Lord Eddard Stark, execute Gared for abandoning his post as a member of the Night’s Watch. After the execution, Eddard’s two older sons, Robb and Jon, discover a gigantic dead direwolf and her six living cubs. The children adopt the pups as their own. Back at the Stark castle, Eddard’s wife, Catelyn, tells him that his friend Jon Arryn has been killed. The King, Robert Baratheon, is riding to Winterfell with all his knights and retainers to speak with Eddard about the problem.

In the far-off city of Pentos, Viserys Targaryen is making arrangements to regain power. Viserys is the son of the Targaryen king, who was deposed by Robert Baratheon 15 years earlier. He plans to marry off his 13-year-old sister, Daenerys, to Khal Drogo, a powerful warlord.

In Winterfell, Eddard welcomes Robert Baratheon. Robert and Eddard visit the grave of Eddard’s sister Lyanna, the woman Robert loved and wanted to marry. Robert makes it clear that he is unhappy with his wife, Queen Cersei Lannister. Robert offers Eddard the chance to take Jon Arryn’s place as the Hand of the King, his chief adviser and war commander. Robert also says that he wishes to betroth his son, the crown prince Joffrey, to Eddard’s young daughter Sansa. That night, Catelyn Stark receives a message that says Cersei Lannister ordered the murder of Jon Arryn, the previous Hand of the King.

Seven-year-old Bran is exploring an abandoned part of the Starks’ castle when he hears a man and woman talking. Bran peers through a window and sees Cersei Lannister and her twin brother, Jaime, having sex. When they discover Bran watching, Jaime throws him out of a high window. Bran’s back and legs are broken by the fall, and his parents fear that if he ever wakes up from his coma, he will be crippled for life.

Daenerys Targaryen marries Khal Drogo in the city of Pentos. She cannot speak his language, but they still come to an understanding and consummate their marriage.

Jon Snow, Eddard Stark’s illegitimate son, and Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf brother of Jaime and Cersei, ride with a group of men to the northern Wall of Winterfell. Jon is going to join the Night’s Watch, a ragtag group of men who are exiled to the Wall to defend Winterfell against unknown threats. Eddard and his two daughters, Sansa and Arya, leave with King Robert for King’s Landing.

Lady Catelyn remains at home to nurse Bran. She is still tending Bran when an assassin comes to murder the boy. She fights the assassin, and Bran’s direwolf kills the man. Catelyn decides that she must travel to King’s Landing to meet Eddard and warn him about the plots against his family. When she arrives in King’s Landing, her childhood friend called Littlefinger tells her that the knife the assassin used to attack Bran actually belongs to Tyrion Lannister. Meanwhile, Eddard discovers that King Robert has bankrupted the kingdom with his constant requests for tournaments and lavish feasts. Littlefinger secretly leads Eddard to Catelyn, who tells him about the attempt on Bran’s life.

Daenerys Targaryen gradually adjusts to life as Khal Drogo’s wife. Her cruel brother, Viserys, accompanies Daenerys and Drogo on the long ride back to Drogo’s country. Daenerys is finally tired of Viserys’ mistreatment of her, and when Viserys attacks her, she makes him walk behind the company of horsemen in disgrace. Toward the end of the long journey, Daenerys learns that she is pregnant.

Bran has awoken and is having a difficult recovery in Winterfell. He is paralyzed from the waist down.

At Castle Black, Jon Snow meets Samwell Tarly, an overweight teenager who cannot fight. Jon befriends Samwell and protects him from the other boys.

On the road back to Winterfell, Catelyn Stark meets Tyrion Lannister and has him arrested on the suspicion that he ordered the attempt on Bran’s life.

A courtier named Lord Varys tells Eddard Stark that Jon Arryn was poisoned after he started asking too many questions about the Lannisters. Eddard is horrified to learn that King Robert has almost no true supporters in the capital city. Almost everyone who surrounds the king is secretly loyal to the Lannisters.

Wild men in the mountains attack Catelyn and the group of men who helped her capture Tyrion Lannister. Tyrion saves Catelyn’s life in the fight, and her attitude toward him softens somewhat.

King Robert wants Eddard to agree to help murder Daenerys Targaryen so that her unborn child will not one day threaten his kingdom. Eddard refuses and resigns as the Hand of the King. Robert tells him to return to Winterfell or risk execution. A short while later, Eddard and his men are attacked by Jaime Lannister, who wounds Eddard and kills his attendants. After Eddard heals slightly, King Robert apologizes to him and reinstates him as the Hand of the King. Eddard stumbles across some uncomfortable information about King Robert’s children, and Eddard concludes that Queen Cersei’s children are illegitimate. Cersei openly admits to Eddard that her twin brother, Jaime, sired her three children. Eddard advises Cersei to take her children and leave the kingdom because he intends to tell the king about her betrayal.

Catelyn arrives at Eyrie, the home of her sister, Lysa, the widow of Jon Arryn, the first Hand of the King. She finds Lysa in a mentally unstable state. Lysa imprisons Tyrion Lannister because she believes he has played a role in her husband’s death. After Tyrion’s champion wins a trial by combat, Tyrion is set free on the dangerous open road.

Daenerys arrives in the city of Vaes Dothrak to be presented to the medicine women, the dosh khaleen . Daenerys has to eat the fresh heart of a slaughtered stallion to prove that her child will be a strong ruler. At the feast after the ceremony, her drunken brother, Viserys, holds a sword to her pregnant belly and demands that Khal Drogo give him an army. Instead, Drogo melts some gold pieces and kills Viserys by pouring the molten gold on his head.

At King’s Landing, King Robert lies dying and names Eddard as the Lord Protector of the kingdom. When the king dies, Cersei proclaims her son, Joffrey, to be king and has Eddard imprisoned. Littlefinger betrays Eddard, and it is revealed that Eddard’s daughter Sansa also betrayed him unknowingly by telling Cersei his plans.

Jon Snow and other members of the Night’s Watch discover strange bodies in the woods. The corpses have clearly been dead for a long time, but they haven’t decomposed. Jon fights against one of the undead Others who invades Castle Black.

Robb Stark and all his bannermen ride away to King’s Landing to free Eddard from the Lannisters. Robb leaves Bran in charge of Winterfell.

An attempt is made on Daenerys Targaryen’s life, and when Drogo learns that King Robert has sent assassins to kill Daenerys, he decides to take all of his warriors and invade the Seven Kingdoms.

Tyrion Lannister recruits several armies of tribesmen to support him in upcoming battles. Tyrion meets his father, Tywin, at a roadside inn and learns that the Lannister armies have been winning battles all over the land. Tyrion’s tribesmen agree to fight with the Lannisters against the Starks. Tyrion and Tywin win a battle against some of the soldiers sent by the Starks, but meanwhile, Robb Stark and Lady Catelyn win another skirmish against the Lannisters and capture Jaime Lannister.

After sustaining a severe wound in battle, Khal Drogo lies dying. A healing woman named Mirri offers to do a dark magic ritual that will save Drogo. Drogo’s men begin to fight each other, and the camp is in chaos. Daenerys is dragged into the tent where the ritual is happening, and the dark magic kills the child she is carrying. When Daenerys wakes, she learns that the dark magic has saved Drogo’s life but left him in a permanent vegetative state. She smothers her husband to end his ruined life.

In King’s Landing, Arya Stark is disguised as a beggar child, and she watches as her father, Eddard, is publically executed. Sansa is still betrothed to young King Joffrey, who abuses her and enjoys frightening her.

The Stark armies gain ground. Instead of supporting one of King Robert’s brothers as successor to the crown, many lords decide that they will only follow Robb Stark, who they wish to crown as King in the North.

Daenerys builds a funeral pyre for her husband. As his corpse burns, the three dragon eggs that she places on the pyre begin to hatch. Daenerys and her dragons instantly draw the adoration and loyalty of many people, who will one day form her army.

Christian Beliefs

Other belief systems.

The Others are supernatural creatures. They bring cold temperatures with them. When the Others kill Ser Waymar Royce, he rises from the dead and becomes a wight, an undead person.

Each ruling family has its own godswood, a place where the family may go to worship or to seek solitude. Catelyn Stark is not fond of the Stark godswood, which is a memorial to ancient nameless gods, but Eddard finds it comforting. Catelyn comes from a family who belongs to the Faith, a religion that worships a god with seven different faces. Jon Snow decides that he cannot pray to either the old or the new gods because they have not shown him any kindness. After his accident, Bran Stark takes great pleasure in being near the godswood and thinking about the old gods.

Characters pay attention to signs and omens. When the Stark children discover a dead direwolf in the snow and find that the creature was killed by a deer’s antler, people believe that the Baratheon House will destroy the Stark House, because the Starks’ symbol is a wolf and the Baratheons’ symbol is a stag.

The dosh khaleen of the Dothraki are women who function as shamans. They can supposedly foretell the future, and they predict that Daenerys’ child will be the leader who will unite the known world under one banner. Mirri the maegi performs a bloodmagic ritual that saves Drogo’s life by killing his unborn child.

Authority Roles

Eddard Stark is kind to his sons and tries to explain the concepts of justice to them. He makes his sons take responsibility for the direwolf pets they take in, and he warns them about the possible dangers of trying to domesticate wild animals. Eddard routinely asks his wife about the children, and he is involved in their upbringing. Eddard is displeased that his 3-year-old son, Rickon, is afraid of a direwolf pup, because he feels that his children should overcome their fears as soon as possible. He encourages his quarreling daughters, Sansa and Arya, to put aside their differences and love each other as sisters should. He hires an expert swordsman to teach Arya to use her small sword when he learns that his daughter has an interest in fighting. Eddard knows that Joffrey will make a bad match for Sansa, so he tries to take her away from Joffrey and promises that he will find a more worthy husband for her.

Catelyn Stark loves all her children and constantly looks out for their best interests, but she resents her husband’s illegitimate son, Jon Snow. Catelyn does not want to have Jon around her children. When her own son Bran breaks his back and legs, she tells Jon that she wishes he were the one who was injured. Catelyn stays by her comatose son Bran for days, and she fights an assassin who comes to kill him. Catelyn’s hands are cut to the bone by the assassin’s dagger, but she manages to save her son’s life. When Catelyn’s oldest son, Robb, begins to command other men when the war starts, she takes special care to treat him like a grown man in front of his soldiers.

Jon Snow becomes a leader of the young men in the Night’s Watch. He overcomes his own tendency to bully boys who are less skilled at swordplay, and he teaches the common boys how to use their swords. When the sword instructor Ser Alliser pointlessly orders the overweight Samwell to be beaten bloody, Jon stands up to defend him. Jon takes care of Samwell and convinces the other boys to be kind to him.

Samwell Tarly’s father told him that he had to either join the Night’s Watch, or his father would kill him and make it look like an accident.

Tyrion Lannister frequently mentions how his father despises him for his dwarfism and deformity.

Catelyn’s sister, Lysa, calls her own 6-year-old son a baby, pampers him and openly discusses his delicate health and tender feelings. She still breastfeeds the boy.

King Robert Baratheon does nothing to advise or discipline his three children by Cersei, who are actually not his children at all. King Robert has many illegitimate children, and he provides for some of them but never visits them.

Profanity & Violence

Although d–n or a form of it and b–tard , as it refers to Jon Snow, are used profusely throughout the book, a few words are used a number of times, such as variations of h— , b–tch (usually used to refer to a female dog) and s— . The following words are each used a handful of times or less: tit, c–k, a–, the f-word and c–t . After his sister’s marriage, Viserys calls her a whore and a slut instead of using her name.

The Others kill Ser Waymar Royce with their swords. Royce comes back to life as a wight, with a shard of his opponent’s sword still wedged into his eye. Royce chokes Will to death.

Bran Stark is 7 years old when he attends his first public execution. Eddard Stark cuts off a man’s head with his sword. Eddard’s teenage ward kicks the decapitated head and laughs.

Eddard’s older brother Brandon was strangled to death by order of Aerys Targaryen, the previous king. A knight named Ser Ilyn is mute because King Aerys had his tongue pulled out with hot pincers.

At Daenerys’ wedding, men begin fighting, and one of them is cut so badly that his intestines spill out on the ground. Several more men die in fights that break out at the wedding.

Years ago, the infant heir to the Targaryen throne was murdered by being thrown against a wall. Eddard was horrified by the brutality, but he recalls that Robert was pleased by the death of any Targaryen.

Catelyn fights off the assassin sent to kill Bran. She grabs the man’s dagger with both hands, cutting herself deeply. She manages to bite a chunk of flesh from the man’s hand before Bran’s direwolf attacks him. Bran’s wolf rips out the assassin’s throat, which sprays Catelyn with blood.

Sandor Clegane, a knight who serves the Lannisters, hunts down a 13-year-old boy and cuts him nearly in half with his sword. Clegane kills the boy because Prince Joffrey falsely said the boy injured him. Sandor Clegane tells Sansa Stark that his horribly scarred face is the result of his older brother intentionally rubbing his face into hot coals when he was a small child. Eleven-year-old Sansa watches men die while jousting in a tournament.

Old Nan says that the Others let their dead servants eat the bodies of children. Many men suffer bloody deaths during fights.

When Bran Stark defies the men who want to rob him, an outlaw woman suggests that her companions cut off Bran’s genitals and stuff them in his mouth.

As part of an old Dothraki ritual, Daenerys has to eat the bloody heart of a freshly slaughtered stallion to prove that the child she carries will be a strong ruler. Later that night, Drogo kills Viserys by pouring molten gold on top of his head. Daenerys has the medicine woman Mirri burned alive.

Arya Stark runs her sword through a stable boy when he tries to harm her. Joffrey orders his knights to hit Sansa in the face many times. He enjoys showing off her father’s head mounted on a spike.

Sexual Content

Bran has heard rumors about women who live outside the Wall. Some supposedly have sex with the Others in order to have magical, half-human children.

Jon Snow is Eddard Stark’s illegitimate son. Snow is the surname of all illegitimate children in Winterfell. Eddard says that he dishonored himself and his wife by fathering a child outside of marriage.

Viserys Targaryen sexually appraises his 13-year-old sister, Daenerys, to judge how he may benefit from arranging a marriage for her. Viserys strokes and pinches his sister’s clothed breasts. Daenerys has always assumed that she would marry her brother because the Targaryens have always married their siblings to keep their bloodlines pure. Viserys tells his sister that he would gladly let a whole army of men rape her if he could regain his throne by doing so. After her marriage, Viserys grabs his sister’s breast hard enough to cause her pain.

Viserys believes that the Dothraki people practice homosexuality and bestiality. King Robert talks about how the women in his city have very little modesty in the summer and how he enjoys watching them swim naked in the river beneath the castle. King Robert’s insatiable lusts are well-known and frequently discussed, and a major plot point hinges on Jon Arryn’s investigation of Robert’s many illegitimate children.

In one scene, Catelyn and Eddard begin a discussion immediately after having sex. Catelyn hopes that their relations will produce another child. While in their chambers, Catelyn receives a message that shocks her so much that she stands and walks around naked in front of the messenger, old Maester Luwin. Catelyn reassures her husband that this is not problematic because Luwin delivered all her children and has seen her body before.

Seven-year-old Bran witnesses the twins Cersei and Jamie Lannister committing incest. Cersei later admits to Eddard that she and Jaime have been lovers since they were children. Cersei says that King Robert did impregnate her once, but she had an abortion, and since that time she has avoided intercourse with the king.

At Daenerys’ wedding, Daenerys watches people engaging in the Dothraki custom of having group sex in public. Daenerys and Drogo’s consummation of their vows is not described, but they do engage in explicit foreplay. In the early days of their marriage, Drogo will only have sex with Daenerys if she is facing away from him. Daenerys is grateful for this position because it means that he cannot watch her cry. After a few weeks of this, Daenerys asks for marital advice from a former prostitute. After Daenerys learns a few new techniques and positions, she and Drogo both enjoy sex more than they had previously. Later on, Drogo has sex with his wife in public.

Rhaegar Targaryen repeatedly raped Eddard’s sister Lyanna before her death. Littlefinger owns a brothel and hides Catelyn Stark inside it, so the Lannisters do not discover her. The scantily dressed employees of the brothel flirt with their clients.

Several of the teenage boys who work for the Night’s Watch were sent to the cold, remote outpost as punishment for being rapists. They are known by their past crimes and called “the rapers.”

Prostitutes are the subject of many off-color jokes from various characters. Tyrion talks to Catelyn Stark in a sexual manner and makes comments about her body in order to shock her. Tyrion later jokes that he would like to die peacefully in his old age while receiving oral sex. Tyrion has sex with a camp follower named Shae.

The scene is not intended to be sexual, but Catelyn’s sister, Lysa, openly breastfeeds her 6-year-old son.

In Vaes Dothrak, women dance while dressed only in garlands of flowers. Drogo vows to let his men rape the women of the Seven Kingdoms.

Tyrion Lannister tells the story of how he lost his virginity when he was 13 to a peasant girl who was only a year older. He secretly married the girl, but then his brother revealed that he had arranged the entire relationship for Tyrion. The girl was a prostitute, and in order to break Tyrion’s attachment to the girl, his father had her brought to the Lannister castle and made Tyrion watch as she had sex with every man in the castle guard.

Characters discuss giants mating with mortals and say that it is easier for giant women to mate with human men, because when giant men have intercourse with human women, they split them open.

When the Dothraki begin to attack other people groups, Daenerys learns that they intend to sell all the boys and girls they capture. The children will be sent to brothels, where extra money will be paid for the boys. Daenerys hears a girl being raped and stops the Dothraki warriors from continuing to hurt her. Daenerys continues to save every woman she finds being raped and takes the women into custody as her slaves. Daenerys asks her husband to stop his soldiers from any further rape and encourages him to have his men make wives of the conquered women.

Discussion Topics

Additional comments.

Alcohol: Characters drink wine and other types of alcohol. At age 14, Jon Snow is glad that no one is paying attention to him at a feast, because it means that he can drink as much alcohol as he wants.

Drugs: Dying and injured characters are given poppy juice to ease their pain.

Media tie-in: HBO launched a television series based on this book series. It debuted in the spring of 2011.

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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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Book Review: A Game of Thrones

“A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin tells the tale of various clashing households and their quest to conquer control over the seven kingdoms. Set in a distant, but vaguely familiar medieval-Europe, the story bears parallels to England’s “War of the Roses,” while also introducing its share of unique fantasy elements. As the reader progresses through the book, they follow the politics of the Iron Throne- a metaphor representing the complete and utter control a King possesses in a feudal government system. Furthermore, the reader tracks 8 character perspectives, which are alternated through passing chapters.

As the King rides north to Winterfell to meet with his trusted vassal, and friend, Eddard "Ned" Stark, he strikes up an agreement to anoint Eddard as the hand of the king. Reluctant, Ned follows the King back to the South, but as the plot continues to unfold, Eddard learns of a secret unbeknownst to the King and some of his most trusted advisers. With the death of the King and the ruin of Eddard’s house, war rages in Westeros- as several characters attempt to strike their claims on the Iron Throne.

I initially picked this book up after finishing J.R.R Tolkien’s, “Lord of the Rings” series and have been pleasantly surprised with it. Many fantasy readers have speculated that the literary masterpiece of Tolkien’s novels could not be out done, but I am now inclined to disagree. I thought the book was well-crafted and engaging as an intermediate to advanced reader. However, I would file the complaint that the book moves a bit slow for my taste. Some may lose interest in its plot, especially considering the sheer volume of the book series. The old-language also adds to this effect, as it may cause some readers to struggle following along.

Overall, I would say that this book is certainly worth a try for someone who enjoys medieval-fantasy novels. Admittedly, it will take a while to read and is certainly no small undertaking, but by sticking with it, I found myself enjoying every page more than the last!

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This fantasy series clearly won’t write itself.

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By Choire Sicha and Alan Yuhas

Winter may finally be on its way to Westeros. Eventually. Or not.

But all that fans of “A Song of Ice and Fire,” the sweeping fantasy series that led to the HBO hit show “Game of Thrones,” have to go on is the word of George R. R. Martin, its creator.

Mr. Martin, who is 71 and lives in Santa Fe, N.M., has for years blown past deadlines to deliver the final manuscript for “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth book in the series, which began publishing in 1996. On Wednesday, he tweeted that “the enforced isolation” of life during a pandemic was helping him to make “steady progress” on the book.

He did not say when readers might get a look at it. “I finished a new chapter yesterday, another one three days ago, another one the previous week,” he wrote in a Tuesday update to his blog that was shared with the tweet. “But no, this does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week. It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go.”

I have to confess, after half a year of pandemic, I am showing signs of cabin fever. If nothing else, the enforced isolation has helped me write. I am spending long hours every day on THE WINDS OF WINTER, and making steady progress. https://t.co/i0DRw51PC7 — George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) June 24, 2020

He also lamented that he had been forced to cancel plans to visit New Zealand, but said there was “definitely a silver lining in that cloud.”

“The last thing I need right now is a long interruption that might cost me all the momentum I have built up,” he wrote. “I can always visit Wellington next year, when I hope that both Covid-19 and THE WINDS OF WINTER will be done.”

That was the only clue for his publication plans. He urged fans not to “give any credence to any of the click-bait websites that like to parse every word of my posts,” although fans of the series are well known for doing that on their own.

David Moench, Mr. Martin’s representative at Random House, declined answer questions about the timing of the next book.

“George Martin is not available for an interview, as he is indeed focused on writing THE WINDS OF WINTER,” he said. “Random House will publish that book once it is finished, whenever that may be.”

On Reddit, fans at the “A Song of Ice and Fire” subreddit responded to the announcement with a mixture of despair, excitement and plot suggestions. “This is not great news, it hardly even qualifies as news,” one contributor wrote. “I hate to be negative but the only posts I want to see are about an imminent release,” another wrote.

Hungry fans of the written series have gathered at the subreddit for years, collectively sharing their hopes and frustrations for the series, noting each blog update and dissecting every word from the author in an attempt to find just one more bread crumb about the upcoming book.

Mr. Martin also assured readers that he was healthy “for an out-of-shape guy of 71,” gave a few author recommendations — Stephen King , Emily St. John Mandel — and said he was still involved with the slow production of “The House of the Dragon,” HBO’s follow-up to “Game of Thrones.”

“A Dance With Dragons,” the most recent volume in the series, was published in 2011. The HBO adaptation began airing at nearly the same time, stretched on for eight years, and then lapped Mr. Martin’s production of plot. While that show soared to audience heights, regularly breaking HBO audience records , it ended in critical defeat for its creators.

Mr. Martin has declined interview requests from The New York Times this year, and his team is protective of his writing time. He did find time in recent months to buy a railroad with his friends. (He also owns a cinema in Santa Fe.)

With a possible delivery date of 2021, that would make the unfolding of the books a three-decade process.

Except “The Winds of Winter” is not the end of this story. There’s meant to be one more.

Aimee Ortiz contributed reporting.

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Book Review: A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin

by odesk.jatin | May 12, 2012 | Reviews | 8 comments

Rating: Center Centaur

Book Review: A Game of Thrones , by George R.R. Martin

I realize I am really late to this party (the book came out in the 1990s), but I usually am with everything reading related—there’s just so much to read, and so little time to keep up, and school set me back on my fantasy reading quite a bit. But I wanted to read it, so I finally did. And I enjoyed this book very much by the end. It was actually pretty tough to decide what rating to give it, because for many parts of it, especially in the first half, I was really annoyed and fully anticipated I wouldn’t be able to finish it (I thought I was going to have my first Caw-Caw Crow review), but the end was fantastic, and would have been worthy of an Epic Dragon rating had there not been some of the things that, at least for me, work against the over-all experience.

On the whole, and despite giving it a middle-grade, I would recommend this book to people who, like me, didn’t get to it right away and have been hearing about it a lot. I especially recommend it if you are one of those people who heard about the HBO show and want to watch it, but who, like me, don’t want to watch it until you’ve read the books, or at least a few of them. So, that said, onto the particulars of my book review of George R. R. Martin’s very cool story, A Game of Thrones (link to the Facebook page for it, that has other links for the series, etc.) .

One of the things I like the most, nay, loved the most, about this book is the descriptive places where Martin paints a setting with absolutely masterful craftsmanship. I am insanely envious of his spectacular vocabulary when it comes to the devices, parts, pieces, architectural structure, bits of armor, boat terminology, fabrics and so much more related the medieval setting he describes. The language is natural, works well, and really adds a layer of credibility to the book that many authors don’t have. He just comes off as very smart and well-read. He reminds me of Cormac McCarthy a little bit in that way.

But it’s not just vocabulary and description, it’s the delightful way he weaves together a setting to include the people, the activity, the physical setting, the noise and general ambience. It’s truly wonderful writing when he gets it just right. Here’s a little example:

The Mud Gate was open, and a squad of City Watchmen stood under the portcullis in their golden cloaks, leaning on spears. When a column of riders appeared from the west, the guardsmen sprang into action, shouting commands and moving the carts and foot traffic aside to let the knight enter with his escort. (Martin 234)

There’s a lot happening there besides just a knight entering the city. We see what color the city watch wears, we know what weapons they are carrying, but we also are given to understand that they are generally relaxed and not feeling any particular urgency since they are leaning on the spears rather than standing bolt upright or even just “standing with spears” or something else that would have told us nothing beyond the who and what. We also get the sense of the business of the city by the fact they have to move carts and foot traffic aside, which shows the actions they take, but also sets the scenery by putting those particular items there to begin. It’s really effective writing in that way. I love it when Martin does that, and he does it a lot. In places, it’s a clinic in good writing on that front.

However, these very same things that I really liked about the book are also sometimes over the top. There are many places, many, where he seems to go on and on and on about this bit of food and that flavor of something else, or the scroll work on this guy’s armor or that doorway. I am not a skimmer when I read, because I read not just for story but to learn about writing and how writers do what they do. I consider George R.R. Martin someone worthy of study because, as a writer, clearly I can learn a lot from him. However, because I don’t skim, I found myself frequently thinking, “Come on, get on with it all ready. Who gives a crap what vintage of wine it is or that it came from the high hills of such-and-such, the fruit born of the something or other vine some distant summer back when the high lord so-and-so had his first baby and shot the White Stag of Whatever and blah etc., blah.” This kind of thing counts as Chekhov’s Gun to me.

I know some people like that super-detail, and I do to, to an extent. In places, I really loved how he did it. The same goes for the long history lessons that get stuffed in here and there. Some were very cool, others tedious. I am sure there is a purpose farther down the road in the series for the tedious-seeming ones, so I won’t harp on that longer. I am more than happy to concede that I don’t know all that he has in mind for the stuff I read but doesn’t apply to anything in the first book significantly. I’ll even concede I probably missed connections along the way. However, I will also point out that an author can only expect a reader to retain so much of that sort of detail, and beyond that point, the rest is basically wasted because there won’t be a payoff for the reader. They simply can’t hold on to it all, so despite having read it some seven hundred or a thousand pages ago, there will be no “ah ha” moment when it finally plays out. It’s just lost in the sea of words.

So, that’s my main beef with the story. Too much detail that breaks the rule of Chekhov’s Gun.

My second primary criticism with it is the seeming obsession the story has with whores and sexualizing little girls. In an early chapter in particular, somewhere around page eighty-nine, there is a scene that is so completely impossible to believe, that not only did it shatter the fictional dream, it nearly made me put the book down and be done with it. I actually did put it down and read another book before I came back to A Game of Thrones .

Now before I go on, I would like to point out, I am not a prude. I have no problem with fictionalized sex, rape, incest and even violence to children if that’s what needs to happen for the story to be honest to itself. I expect the very fact I say that will offend a few people, which only proves my point that I am not a prude at all. However, I do require as a reader that the scene feel true to life, an honest depiction of a reality, even a fictional reality as is being created in a novel. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening in places in A Game of Thrones .

(SPOILER ALERT: The next paragraph has a bit of a spoiler in regards to that early chapter I’m talking about, so if you want to skip over that, jump down to the next big paragraph below, where I wrote “Spoiler Part Over Now.”)

The problem I have with the particular scene is that it is unreasonable. The girl, Daenerys Targaryen, is thirteen years old, her parents have died, she’s in a foreign land amongst strangers, and her older brother who is cruel to her and pinches her nipples all the time, sells her to a much older man of a different race that she’s never met, who looks different than anyone this thirteen-year-old has ever seen, and who takes her as a child bride. They go to a wedding ceremony where she sits, betrayed/sold by her only living relative, terrified and watching this barbaric seeming ritual that includes public fornication by pretty much everyone as they dance around the party humping each other, which traumatizes the girl since she has never witnessed that sort of thing, obviously, and then comes fighting in which she sees people killed and hacked open (twelve of them as I recall), and all done right in front of her, to her horror as it is another thing she has never witnessed before. So she sits mortified through all of this, absolutely dumbstruck with terror, after which she is given some bride gifts, including horse, which she does like, but then has to ride out into the cold night where she is stripped naked by this complete stranger of a much-older man and then made to stand shivering with cold as he fondles her for a very long period of time and then, miraculously, when he finally decides to use a finger to, test the waters as it were, she is suddenly—well, let’s just say that suddenly she is just horny as hell and can’t wait for him to do her (Martin 90).

I realize I have never been a thirteen-year-old girl, so I could be way off here, but, I’m sorry, I just don’t buy that scene being believable in any way.

Spoiler Part Over Now.

Now I realize that is only one scene, but that particular character gets a narrative treatment that was distractingly creepy throughout the story, and to me it seemed unnecessary. Additionally, the seemingly random sexuality pops up a few in a few other places as well. It kind of reminds me of some HBO and Showtime series where they stick naked people in the weirdest places, and have people banging randomly despite there being no real advancement of plot by it. I probably would have ignored that as an issue had it not been so pronounced with the Daenerys Targaryen character up front.

Beyond that, there are whores everywhere in this story. It’s like, literally everywhere. I’m perfectly fine with a patriarchal fictional world, and I’m fine with the fact there are only a few female characters with any admirable qualities. It’s fiction, roll with it. But the men in the story are all endlessly consumed with whores. I understand it’s supposed to be a rough-and-tumble world, but I’m not sure why so many big, powerful, super-wealthy noblemen have to stoop to whores as often as they seem to do. Surely there are enough serving girls and farm girls to attenuate at least some of that, not to mention all the sisters, daughters, widows, etc. of the aristocracy and merchant classes. Surely there would be more of those around to satisfy all these knights and other levels of the elite to a degree that would mitigate the nearly constant presence of whores or talk of whores. Not saying those guys wouldn’t go get some hot dirty-whore action periodically, at least some of them surely would, I’m just saying, the abundance was conspicuous to me at times.

My last bit of nit picking is about the dialogue where, in places, it came off as affected or weak. In some spots, it was fabulous, and yet, in others, it was so completely awkward I couldn’t believe the same person wrote it. For example, and this will tie in nicely to my last point, he’s got one character making a simile in dialogue that says something was going to be “uglier than a whore’s ass” (Martin 219). First off, there’s that whore thing again. Secondly, since when are whore’s asses so uniformly ugly that they became the symbol of all things ugly, the paragon of grotesqueness, and the icon of hideousness in all its anticipated forms? Are whore’s asses misshapen with such ubiquitous constancy that we came to the point where they define the adjective? I think not. Frankly, whores can be ugly, certainly, and the lifestyle might easily work upon one’s comeliness over time, but I would think that there are at least as many whores with spectacular asses as there are whore’s with nasty, sore-ridden, ugly ones. To me, having a nice ass seems like almost a necessity of the trade for some grades of whoredom. So, yeah, stuff like that.

(And I realize this may seem like an over-the-top critique of that particular bit, but I’m trying to have a bit of fun, and, well, I blame that sort of thing on the book’s editors. I will be the first to admit I’m sure my books have dumb stuff in them too, stuff that gets by you when you write and can’t even see it anymore after going through the manuscript a zillion times. But George R.R. Martin is published by Bantam, a part of Random House, a HUGE publisher. He’s not an indie like me, so surely he’s got people going through his manuscripts, professional people, who are helping him catch stuff like that. So, because of that, I don’t feel bad having a bit of fun to make a larger point, and it’s also why I rate the book a Center Centaur as well. I’m always going to rate harder on traditionally published writers because they get a lot more help and their books cost a lot more and, therefore, I don’t feel it is unfair to expect more from the finished product.)

So, I’m sure by now you’re thinking I didn’t like this book. But I did. I like it a lot, except where those things I just mentioned make it feel very long. It’s fabulous in many ways, and in many places the descriptions are not too long and are simply wonderful. I stopped and read several of them carefully, in awe of the precision and beauty of the prose. The descriptive stuff is usually very good. Just as more often than not, the dialogue is exceptional, too. In fact, my favorite character in the book is Tyrion Lannister, and it’s because of the fantastic dialogue. He’s got so many good lines, like, really, really good lines, that I often laughed aloud and reread the passage several times just to enjoy the fine writing that did that to me. There are other characters that are very strong too, Lord Eddard Stark for one. A wonderful character, and even the character of Sansa is very well done. It would be easy for a lesser writer to butcher the job that Martin has done with her, or at least what I think he is doing with her. It would be easy to make her too weak or too strong, and he’s walking that line very well.

The strongest part of this book, and the reason I totally recommend this book despite what I have said about the parts I didn’t care for, is the plot. This story is just good. Period. George R.R. Martin has got, at least with this first book, a fantastic plot underway. Weaving a storyline is definitely a strong suit for Martin, both on the chapter level (many of his chapters end leaving you with chills or tears) and for the whole A Game of Thrones novel.

This novel works as a standalone story even though it’s part of a longer series. Granted it barely stands alone, and I imagine he got some criticism for “loose ends” from people when this one first came out (I know the feeling… hey, you can only write sequels so fast), but it works by itself if you want to try his style of writing out. If you read it, and don’t move on, you will not feel like you wasted your time. It’s good; the plot is awesome; the depth and grandeur of the telling is fantastic for the most part; and the ending is magnificent. I got to that last page and was like, “Dammit, now I have to read the next book.” And I will.

Works Cited

Martin, George R.R. A Game of Thrones . New York: Bantam. 1996.

Senelick, Laurence. “General Introduction.” Anton Chekhov’s Selected Plays . Trans. and ed. Laurence Senelick. New York: Norton, 2005. Xxvii-xl.

Well into the second season of the HBO series, Game of Thrones, I can tell you that the show is incredibly well done and detailed. The relationship between Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo was handled much more delicately – and didn’t quite take on the same sort of urgency as the way it was originally written. She learned over time to love him and how to live with him.

Interesting review. I’m a little different in that I’m waiting to finish the series before I read the books. If I love the books, I’ll be disappointed with the series. If I love the series, I’ll be chomping at the bit to read the books – which are almost always better.

You’re right the books are almost always better, so, you have a good strategy. And, well, as far as Daenerys, they’d have to handle it more delicately or the show would have been protested by the hyper-sensitive, PC automatons out there whose goal in life is to force everyone into compliance, etc. I am looking forward to the series though. We watched Battlestar Galactica from start to finish over the course of about six months, … LOVED it. Same with Star Trek the Next Generation, Rome, the Sopranos, and a bunch of others. I love having a whole complete season. We’re close to Firefly, but we cant’ get the first one for some reason.

Even *I* loved Firefly! And I have a tendency to do the same – watch an entire season – sometimes we’ll do it over a weekend (yeah, we have no life…lol).

I miss Rome. Rome was awesome!

Fear not, the series will be worth the wait, promise.

We shall see. 🙂

Hey John, nice review. Now that I look at it from your point of view, you’re pretty much spot on with what you say about Daenerys. Without giving away the other books, safe to say she gets built up as this big savour/heroine, but I just can’t like her because she comes across as a little soulless. In fact, as the series goes on I like her less and less.

Regarding the whoring, I’m sure it was more talk than action when I read it. Having watched most of the first part of the HBO series there seemed to be a lot more bed scenes that I remember, but then I did read the first four in the space of a year (quick for me) and I can barely remember where each book ends and the next begins. However, I think the old saying is true here, ‘sex sells’. I never realised just how huge the erotica market was until I started self-publishing. It seems like every other author I come across writes some form of smut, whereas I always thought it was a real niche market.

Agree with what you say about plot in this book, though. And it just gets better and better as the series goes on.

It’s funny you mention that erotica thing. Just yesterday I was at the store with my wife, and she was looking through the meat section and I happened to notice the grocery store book section was right there, so I just wandered over to see what was selling at the market these days. All “romance.” Literally every single one. There wasn’t a fantasy, sci-fi, mystery or thriller there.

I wonder what sort of commentary that makes about our society (if any at all). Are we all sexually repressed? Are we all over sexualized? Are we all exactly as we’ve always been and the readily available media sources make manifesting that nature easier and easier (and profitable for those willing to capitalize)?

I keep telling myself I’m going to try to make myself read 50 Shades of Gray just to see what all the noise is about, but the last time I did that was for the first Twilight book and, bleh, that was pretty miserable reading for me. The whole time I just couldn’t figure out what a 100 year old vampire who never sleeps so has nothing to do but read and become more and more sophisticated and cultured, would see in a surly, moping little teenager. She wasn’t even a super-hotty or a slut. She smelled like bacon to him. (sigh). Nice premise for a whole series of books. lol

Haha, I could never read Twilight. I saw the first movie and it was interesting up to the point where they realised the weird kids were vampires and it went downhill from there. I can’t imagine how it could stretch into four (or however many) movies. Needless to say, the wife loved it.

Personally, there’s very little I would rather read less than erotica. It just seems to be this cheap, nasty form of literature which people can read and pretend they’re not so base as to lower themselves to watching or reading regular porn. I just don’t see the point. I think “no artistic merit” is the phrase that comes to mind, but perhaps I’m wrong. After all no one buys my book (except you, cheers!) whereas all these erotica authors are selling bucketloads.

Well, I’m with you on the not wanting to read it part, but I can’t really bag on it too much because my story has a dragon in it, and, well, there are those who would immediately lump it into the garbage category based solely on that, heh. I imagine if a really good writer spent time making deep interesting characters and putting them in interesting situations, erotica, like Sci-fi and fantasy, might be made into something artistic. I have a hard time seeing how, but that doesn’t mean the right person couldn’t come along and do it.

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A Game of Thrones: Book Review

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Most people are fans of the Game of Thrones show (not including the last season) but the books by George R.R. Martin is where the adventure all started. Keep reading to learn about the epic fantasy world of A Game of Thrones.

A Game of Thrones Summary

After Jon Arryn’s death, King Robert Baratheon approaches Eddard “Ned Stark,” the “King of the North” to become the next “Hand of the King.” After discussing it with his family, Ned decides to take the position. But tragedy befalls Bran Stark when he is pushed out the window of a tower after seeing Queen Cersei Lannister having sex with her twin brother Jaime Lannister.

Bran does not remember what happened before he falls and cannot use his legs anymore. Ned travels to the capital city of Westeros, King’s Landing with his daughters Arya and Sansa. When they arrive in King’s Landing, Ned learns that Jon Arryan’s death was not an “accident.

After learning how bad it has gotten in King’s Landing, Ned uses all his power to try to fix the problems at hand. The King is irresponsible and Queen Cersei is plotting something. Can Ned hold the kingdom together or will it tear his friendship and his family apart?

As many of you know, the books are long and has a lot of characters. There is always a lot going on. So much that Martin strongly believed his books would never be made into a tv show before HBO came along and changed that narrative.

I saw the show first and then decided to read the books. When I learned how good the books were, I knew I had to read them all. If you love the show, then you should read the books because there is so much that doesn’t make the show. And as you may or may not know, the tv show went a different direction near the end.

The one bad part about the A Song of Ice and Fire series is that is it still ongoing. Martin is still finishing up the last two novels in the series and who knows how long that will take. It has been a decade since the last novel has been released. Otherwise, the series is great!

I strongly recommend this book if you love fantasy books. Not many books have this much detail and are still a great read. It has redefined the fantasy genre and rightfully so!

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Im watching the show now and im loving it. I will probably read the books after i finish the show…

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Thank you for the like… hey Ahaqir I bet I have a zombie book you have yet to read1?!?! (right now I do still have it in my possession in case you have not and are interested) its called zombie island and you should be able to find a review in a search on my Multiscreen blog. Here’s the direct link https://multiscreenmotivision.wordpress.com/2018/05/04/zombieisland/

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Game of Thrones Book Reviews

This is a list of all the George R. R. Martin book reviews at The Fantasy Review .

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3)

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4)

A Dance With Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5)

Game of Thrones Companion Books Reviewed

The World of Ice and Fire – Review Coming Soon

Fire and Blood (A Targaryen History #1) – Review Coming Soon

Similar Book Reviews

A Game of Throne Themes and Analysis

A game of thrones, by george r. r. martin.

‘A Game of Thrones’ utilizes an excellently descriptive story, a limited character point of view, and a layered thematic structure to guide its reader into its vastly complex world.

About the Book

Article written by Joshua Ehiosun

C2 certified writer.

From exploring the value of family to showing the complexities that surround power struggles, ‘A Game of Thrones’ has undoubtedly influenced fantasy writing. The story’s use of expertly crafted figurative language structure , lore, history, and symbols makes it addictive.

A Game of Thrones Themes

A primary theme of ‘A Game of Thrones’ is the bond associated with family. The story portrays how people’s lives and decisions get influenced by their families. Jon Snow felt the strong impact of family on his life. Because he was born a bastard, he became a shadow in the House of Stark; this made him seek out meaning in his life, leading to him joining the Night’s Watch .

Though Jon tried to forget about his father and siblings, he still risked everything by deserting the Night’s Watch. However, his friends stopped him, and Lord Mormont taught him that his new family was his brothers who would die for each other; this made him realize that his new family was his friends in the Night’s Watch, brothers who would give their life for him.

When Arya fought with Joffrey, she stood before the king to defend herself but got betrayed by her sister. Sansa’s betrayal cost her relationship with Arya to falter. Even though Ned tried making his daughters amend their rift, the disdain they had for each other negatively impacted their lives individually. Sansa tilted towards the Lannisters and Arya towards the way of the sword.

The bond of a family also had an impact on the Lannisters. Though Tyrion felt like an outcast for being a dwarf, he admitted that the one thing his father never played with was an attack on his family, and when he got detained by Catelyn, Tywin, his father, raised an entire army to get him back.

When Tyrion got captured, his brother tried to get him back by acting rashly and attacking Ned. Though he knew it would be a crime, he could not care less as he loved his brother dearly. Tyrion also admitted that Jaime was the only one who treated him nicely, and the bond between them as brothers was intense.

Daenerys was a little girl who had no family except her brother Viserys. However, he only saw her as a tool he could use to get an army from Khal Drogo . She still felt attached to him. Even when Viserys tried to hurt her, Daenerys tried to save her brother from shame and disgrace. However, when she married Khal Drogo, she found a new family, and the bond between her and her brother waned to the point where she felt only disdain towards his actions.

Honor was an essential part of ‘A Game of Thrones.’ With the existence of knights , lords, kings, and khals, honor was a man’s badge. Jamie got hated because he betrayed his king, Aerys II Targaryen , and killed him, trampling on his honor. In the story, a man’s honor made him stand out from the crowd. Elegance and bravery got tied to honor.

When Ned discovered the truth about Cersei and her children, he could have ordered an execution as she betrayed her husband, the king, and lied to her people. However, he chose honor and gave her the chance to leave; this led to his downfall. Till his last breath, Ned kept his pride, making the people of the north swear their allegiance to his son. Other noble families prided in their honor and strength. For the Lannisters, the power of family above all governed their actions.

When Daenerys married Khal Drogo, he gave her the honor she never got from her brother. Having been downgraded for existing, she felt a new form of power, one given to her by the man she loved. When Viserys dishonored the Dothraki , Daenerys did not plead for her brother as she realized that a man without honor is worse than a beggar, and a man without honor is not fit to rule a kingdom or have an army.

The story of ‘A Game of Thrones’ centered around power. When Jon Arryn died, Robert asked Ned to become the hand of the king ; this put him in a position where he saw the dwindling might of the seven kingdoms. Ned realized that the almighty Westeros was deeply indebted to the House of Lannister. Westeros getting indebted to the Lannisters showed how great their power in the seven kingdoms was. Tywin, the Lord of House of Lannister, became so powerful that he was the personal bank of the kingdom and in the story, whoever has the money, has the power.

When Tyrion got detained by Catelyn, the power of his house over the seven kingdoms bought his freedom. He could buy his way out of almost any situation and even the lord of Castle Black , Lord Mormont, pleaded with him to put in a word with the king because he had enough influence to have his voice heard.

In Night’s Watch, Jon realized that his power and influence gave him the upper hand over all his peers. He soon became a leading figure in the castle and led the other boys in training and governance. When Samwell Tarly came to the Castle, Jon used his influence on the others to ensure he did not get bullied. When he and his friends became men of the Night’s Watch, he made Samwell became an apprentice for master Aemon.

Across the sea, Daenerys became powerful as she got married to Khal Drogo. Drogo was a warrior with the largest army of Dothraki, and when Daenerys married him, she became his Khaleesi, a position of esteem. Her new husband showed her what true power felt like, as she had thousands of men and women obeying her every command.

Without betrayal, the story of Eddard Stark would have been different. Before going to King’s Landing , Ned and his best friend, Robert, agreed that their children should get married as a sign of their friendship. When Ned reached King’s Landing, he uncovered secrets vital to the throne. He shared his secret with Petyr, a man he thought could have enough dignity not to share with anyone else. However, when Robert died, and Ned tried to take over the throne as was right, he got betrayed by Petyr, who held a knife to his throat.

When Ned got imprisoned, Varys made him believe that if he lied about taking over King’s Landing, his daughters would get spared. Even Ned’s daughter, Sansa, thought that Joffrey would have enough love for her and spare her father, but that was far from the truth. He got killed, to the dismay of his daughter, who felt she had saved him. Betrayal was the greatest dishonor among knights and lords; this is why Jaime got the title ‘Kingslayer’ after he betrayed his won king and killed him.

Daenerys felt betrayed by her brother, Viserys. Initially, she looked up to him as he assured her that her marriage to Khal Drogo would give him the leverage he needed to claim the throne. However, she realized that Viserys was willing to betray her and did not care for her. When Viserys said he would let thousands of men have their way with her if it meant him claiming the throne, she felt stabbed and hated him.

Coming of Age

In Westeros, adulthood began at 16. Robb was a young boy of 14 who was the heir of Winterfell . After his father left for King’s Landing, his mother, the regent, left for the same King’s Landing to uncover the truth about her son’s fall; this made Robb become the Lord of Winterfell at a young age.

Robb’s growth from the ages of 14 to 15 was astonishing as he became a lord governing the affairs of a kingdom. After Robb clocked 15, Catelyn met him and admitted that Robb was a man worthy of leading an army. Robb’s growth was so astonishing that even at 15, he was a great strategist that successfully led the defeat of Jaime, a knight .

When Jon snow decided to leave Winterfell for Castle Black, he never knew what to expect from his future. On reaching the wall , he realized that his destiny was to become a man of the Night’s Watch, sworn to defend and protect the kingdom from the shadows beyond the wall. As time passes, Jon garners the respect of his peers and soon becomes the leader of his group.

Before leaving for King’s Landing, Arya was a little girl fascinated by the sword and repelled by anything ladylike. When she leaves Winterfell, Jon gives her a sword, and she starts learning how to fight. Gradually, Arya becomes a good fighter after learning how to sword dance from Syrio Forel . Her desire to gain strength saved her from getting captured by the Lannisters.

Bran was seven years old when he got thrown off the wall by Jaime Lannister . He met a three-eyed raven that gave him the power to see all the kingdoms. When Robb decided to go to war, he left an eight-year-old Bran to rule Winterfell and look after his brother. Gradually, Bran started becoming wiser.

Sansa was a naive girl of 11 when her father told her she soul get married to prince Joffrey. Her love for elegance made her daydream about marrying someone as perfect as Joffrey. However, she starts learning the harsh reality of life after her father gets beheaded. Though Sansa’s naivety made her blind to the world, she became braver as she stood up for her brother when Joffrey said he would love his head as a gift.

Joffrey was a young boy of 12 when he visited Winterfell. His rudeness character shaped him into becoming a heartless person. When his father died, he assumed the throne, and childishness made him feel intoxicated with power. He made decisions and delivered judgment with no consideration of honor or sense.

Daenerys was a young girl of 13 when her brother gave her to Khal Drogo to be a wife. As a child, she becomes the Khaleesi of Drogo’s Khalasar and begins to gain emotional and mental strength. At 14, she gets pregnant, and her attitude and decision-making become polished. When her husband died, Daenerys admitted that she had learned her lesson on trust and consequences; this made her a woman of strength.

History of the Past

The history of the past is a crucial element that influences many characters in ‘A Game of Thrones.’ Robert Baratheon hated the Targaryens so much that he placed a bounty over a young Daenerys and her child. However, his hatred came from the past, as the woman he loved, Lyanna, died after allegedly getting abducted and raped by Rhaegar Targaryen .

The Starks also had a rich history. According to records, they are the direct descendants of the First Men ; this played a crucial role in Bran meets the three-eyed raven. He learned the history of the seven kingdoms and realized it got made in the blood of the children of the forest .

When Ned reached King’s Landing, he tried uncovering the truth about his friend, Jon Arryn’s death; this led to him realizing that Cersei’s children were not Robert’s. Without a history of the noble house, Ned would have never uncovered the truth about Cersei’s infidelity.

Brotherhood and Friendship

Brotherhood and friendship were a vital part of the culture of Westeros as they fostered peace. Ned was a sworn brother to Robert, and they decided to take their brotherhood further by making their children marry.

Jon Snow left Winterfell and joined the Night’s Watch. Though he felt alone and afraid, he met other boys like him, and they became brothers. When Jon met Samwell, he formed a bond with him. It strengthened as Samwell defeated his fear to prevent Jon from deserting the Night’s Watch.

When Daenerys married Khal Drogo, she was gifted three girls as maids. Soon, she grew a bond of friendship with her maids, and they helped her navigate her new life. Without Irri , Daenerys’s life would have been unbearable as she taught her how to please Drogo.

Corruption, Politics, Power Hierarchy

Westeros was a kingdom ruled by politics and the powerful. Deep beneath the kingdom’s governance, the power struggle bred corruption. Cersei had ulterior motives to gain control as she craved it. When Ned discovered that she had children with her brother, she decided to go all out by orchestrating her husband’s accident. Though Robert Baratheon was king, he could not see that his kingdom got governed by corrupt lords who never cared about anyone but themselves. After he died, a power struggle led to the political instability of King’s Landing.

After Robert’s death, Cersei used her influence to put her son as the king. She also made herself sit on the small council using corrupt means and arrested Ned Stark for treason; this sparked conflict in the seven kingdoms as the north denounced their loyalty to King’s Landing.

The hierarchy was an essential part of governance in the seven kingdoms. From lords to knights, the hierarchical order made the government of Westeros function.

Analysis of Key Moments in A Game of Thrones

Three men of the Night’s Watch face White Walkers. Eddard Stark kills one of them that runs away as a deserter, and his sons Robb, Bran, and Jon find six pup direwolves.
Ned learns that his friend, Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, is dead and that Robert Baratheon, the King, is on his way to Winterfell.
Viserys prepares his sister to get married to Khal Drogo, leader of the Dothraki.
Robert visits Ned and asks him to become the Hand of the King.
Ned throws a party in Robert’s honor, and many people attend, including his brother, Benjen, a man of the Night’s Watch. Jon asks Benjen to take him to the Night’s Watch Castle Black, but Jon refuses.
Catelyn, Ned’s wife, gets a message from her sister accusing Cersei of killing her husband, Jon Arryn.
Bran gets thrown off the wall of Winterfell while climbing. He gets paralyzed forever.
Maester Luwin tells Ned and Catelyn of Jon’s willingness to join the Night’s Watch, and they let him go. He gifts Arya a thin sword, and she names it Needle.
Daenerys gets married to Khal Drogo and gets three dragon eggs, three maids, and a horse as her bridal gift.
Robert finds out about Daenerys’s wedding and vows to kill her.
Tyrion leaves for the Night’s Watch to see the wall.
Ned leaves for King’s Landing with Arya and Sansa.
Before Ned leaves Winterfell, Sansa and Joffrey go for a ride. They meet Arya practicing how to fight with Mycah , her friend. Joffrey confronts Mycah and gets injured by Arya’s wolf. When brought before Robert Baratheon, she tells her side of the story and stands her ground about Joffrey lying.
An assassin tries to kill Bran after causing a fire in Winterfell’s library.
After an attempt on Bran’s life, Catelyn decides to go to King’s Landing to uncover the truth about the knife the assassin tried to use.
Jon starts training after arriving at Castle Black. He notices that some boys dislike him and becomes their friend by teaching them how to fight.
Ned reaches King’s Landing and meets with the small council. He meets Catelyn and learns of the assassination attempt on Bran.
Bran has a dream about a three-eyed raven and wakes up. Tyrion leaves Castle Black and returns to Winterfell, where he helps Bran create a special saddle to learn how to ride. In King’s Landing, Arya starts training how to fight with Syrio Forel.
Daenerys punishes her brother after he tries to hurt her. She gets pregnant with Khal Drogo.
Ned begins an investigation into Jon Arryn’s death.
Jon meets Samwell Tarly of Horn and helps him against getting bullied. Neds’s investigation leads him to meet one of Robert’s bastard children.
Catelyn returns to Winterfell, but on the way back, she encounters Tyrion and has him detained.
While learning to catch cats as per her training, Arya enters a place with dragon skulls and overhears two men talking about how they killed Jon Arryn. She also hears them talk about killing her father.
Robert learns of Daenerys’s pregnancy and places a bounty on her. Ned steps down as the Hand of the King.
Catelyn visits her sister in the Eyrie with Tyrion.
Bran rides a horse but almost gets kidnapped by wildlings . However, he gets rescued by his brother, and they capture Osha , a wildling woman.
Tyrion gets imprisoned in the Eyrie but requests a trial by combat. His Champion wins, and he gets set free.
Jon becomes a man of the Night’s Watch. He begs maester Aemon to take in Samwell Tarly. He becomes an apprentice to Lord Mormont, the commander of the Night’s Watch.
Ned gets injured after Jaime attacks him when he collects information about Robert’s children.
Robert asks Ned to come back as the Hand of the King. He goes on a hunt, leaving Ned to govern the kingdom.
Ned discovers that Cersei’s children belonged to her brother Jaime. He meets her and asks her to leave King’s Landing before Robert returns.
Viserys, Daenerys brother, gets killed by Khal Drogo with molten gold.
Robert gets involved in an accident and dies. Ned tries to rule the kingdom as Robert asked, but he gets betrayed by Petyr and arrested.
With Ned’s arrest, Robb decides to gather some men for war. He leaves Bran in charge.
Khal Drogo promises Daenerys the seven kingdoms after a plan to poison her gets foiled by Jorah Mormont .
Tyrion reunites with his father, Tywin, who has an army marching against the Starks.
The Night’s Watch discovers the bodies of Benjen Stark ’s men, who had gone missing. After bringing the bodies back, they try to kill Jon.
Khal Drogo conquers his enemy, Khal Ogo, and after the battle, Daenerys rescues some of the women getting raped.
The Starks attack Tyrion’s men by surprise, but they lose. Tyrion later learns that his father knew about the attacks and put him at the forefront. He also learns that Robb outsmarted them and captured Jaime.
Drogo falls sick and falls from his horse. In a desperate attempt to heal him, Daenerys asks one of the slave women for help. The woman uses dark magic, and Daenerys feels a sharp pain in her belly and passes out.
After Ned’s arrest, Arya escapes the Lannisters, and her father gets summoned by the new king, Joffrey. He gets killed, and a man takes Arya away before she causes a scene.
Jon tries to leave the Night’s Watch after his father’s death. Samwell Tarly and the rest of his friends stop him.
Catelyn and Robb meet Hoster Tully, Catelyn’s grandfather. Robb gets crowned King of the North.
Khal Drogo dies, and Daenerys plans a funeral. With most of the Khalasar gone, she makes a pyre for Drogo and burns the witch with him. She also puts her three dragon eggs and steps into the flames. The eggs crack, and she emerges from the flames, unhurt and with three dragons .

Style and Tone of A Game of Thrones

‘ A Game of Thrones ’ uses a limited third-person perspective to introduce its reader to its world. With the story focusing on a single character’s point of view at a time, it expands its world by introducing subtle details embedded in the relationship between its characters and their immediate environment.

The story utilizes history to make the present as realistic as possible. Though the history portrayed is limited to the knowledge of its narrator, it compensates by making each narrator of history a maester or someone versatile in history.

‘A Game of Thrones’ also employs many tones throughout its plot. In the beginning, it utilizes one of fear and agitation when the men of the Night’s Watch encounter monsters. From there, the tone becomes one of looming danger when Ned decides to go to King’s Landing. Gradually, it changes into one of agitation as Ned gets arrested. Finally, a tone of fright and violence comes into play as a war begins between the Starks and Lannisters. For characters like Jon Snow and Daenerys, Agitation and looming danger encompassed their story.

Figurative Language Used in A Game of Thrones

‘A Game of Thrones’ utilizes figures of speech in its story to portray intensity and give an imaginative picture of the character’s interaction with the story. Here are some of the figures of speech used in the story.

Throughout ‘A Game of Thrones’, there is a rich use of metaphors to define the characters’ emotions and events. The story uses direct comparisons to portray a mental picture of its characters and a mental image of an event that has come or is to come. An instance of the use of metaphor is Ser Gregor Clegane . The story compares him to a mountain, immovable and unstoppable. In the story, winter is a beast that comes for everyone regardless of their status or class; this adds anticipation and makes the reader understand the intensity of winter in the story.

From comparing death to a slow poison that makes one sink into the darkness to describing characters’ voices, there is a rich use of simile throughout ‘A Game of Thrones.’ In the novel, simile was the most predominant figurative language used. Instances of simile use throughout the story include when Gared compared the coldness of fire to the heat of flames and when he compares death to sinking. Also, when Ned kisses Cersei’s ring, it is compared to the embrace of a long-lost sister.

To better describe the intensity of inanimate objects, ‘A Game of Thrones’ uses irony. An example is how the cold gets compared to burning flames.

Personification

‘A Game of Thrones’ uses inanimate elements by attaching humanity to them. The weirwood has the shape of a human hand, and the winter is a living beast that devours anyone not ready for it.

Throughout the story, there is a rich use of hyperbole in adding flair to events and objects. The Dothraki hated the sea and referred to it as poison water; this made it appear as pure death to anyone who tried to travel across it.

Analysis of Symbols in A Game of Thrones

Ice is the name of Ned Stark’s sword. It got described as a blade with the width of a human head and sharpness like no other. The sword symbolizes judgment. When Gared deserts the Night’s Watch, Ned uses the sword to cut off his head, delivering justice in the name of his king, Robert Baratheon.

After beheading Gared, Ned and his sons were returning to Winterfell when they came across direwolves, a special breed of wolves that grew incredibly huge. The rarity of finding direwolves was so high that their appearance signified a bad omen.

Dragon Eggs

When Daenerys married Khal Drogo, she was gifted three dragon eggs by Magister Illyrio. Soon, Daenerys began noticing that the dragon eggs gave her power when she needed it, and when Khal Drogo dies, the eggs crack, and three dragons emerge. The dragon eggs represent a powerful force hibernating and waiting for the right moment to get unleashed.

Throughout the novel, a phrase dominates the lips of every northerner, ‘winter is coming.’ For Westeros, winter symbolizes suffering as it brings intense hardship to everyone, the rich and the poor.

When Lord Mormont, commander of the Night’s Watch, takes in Jon Snow, he gives him Longclaw, a blade forged from Valyrian steel . Longclaw was a blade passed throughout Lord Mormont’s generation. It symbolizes family heritage and pride.

To the Dothraki, horses were sacred creatures that every man needed. From their food to travel, the Dothraki used horses. They even worshipped the horse God and had rules that made a horse sacred to its owner.

Needle is the name Arya gives the thin sword Jon gifts her. The sword represents Arya in every way, thin as her stature and swift as her speed. When Jon gives her the sword, she immediately realizes it is perfect for her. She loved the blade and made it become a part of her.

Iron Throne

The Iron Throne is the throne on which the king of the seven kingdoms sits. It got created by Aegon the Conqueror, the first Targaryen king. Though it is uncomfortable to sit on, it is a seat that propagates power to anyone that sits on it.

Houses Sigil

Every ruling house of Westeros had a sigil they used. The House of Lannister used the lion, the House of Stark used the direwolf, and the Targaryens the dragon. Sigils described the characteristics of the houses of Westeros. It was a symbol of power and pride.

Silver is the name Daenerys gives to her horse after Khal Drogo gifts it to her. To Daenerys, Silver was an extension of her personality.

Trident River

The Trident is an extensive network of rivers in Westeros. For the people, it is a crucial part of history because it was at the river that Robert Baratheon defeated Rhaegar Targaryen.

Why does Robert Baratheon hate the Targaryens?

Robert Baratheon hates the Targaryens because he believes that the woman he loved, Lyanna, got raped by Rhaegar Targaryen, son of Aerys II. After Lyanna got kidnapped by Rhaegar, Robert led a rebellion against the Mad King, Aerys II. He successfully defeated the crowned prince and became King after Aerys II fell.

Are Jorah Mormont and Lord Mormont of the Night’s Watch related?

Jorah Mormont is the son of Lord Mormont of the Night’s Watch. Jorah abandoned Bear Island after dishonoring the House of Stark by trying to sell some poachers to a Tyroshi slaver. Though Jorah ran away, he left Longclaw, his family’s sword.

Is what happens at the end of Game of Thrones season 1 the same as the novel?

The last episode of Game of Thrones ended on a cliffhanger. Ned gets killed, and Robb gets declared the King of the North. Across the Narrow seas, Daenerys loses her husband, Khal Drogo, and walks into a fire with her dragon eggs. From the fire emerges three dragons.

Is A Game of Thrones better than Dune ?

While George R. R. Martin used a streamlined limited prescient approach to disseminate his story, Frank Herbert used rich detailing to show the reader his intricately vast universe. ‘Dune’ and ‘A Game of Thrones’ are both marvelous works of literature, but Frank Herbert’s masterpiece edges out a bit against A Song of Ice and Fire.

About Joshua Ehiosun

Joshua is an undying lover of literary works. With a keen sense of humor and passion for coining vague ideas into state-of-the-art worded content, he ensures he puts everything he's got into making his work stand out. With his expertise in writing, Joshua works to scrutinize pieces of literature.

The Game of Thrones section of Book Analysis analyzes and explores the Game of Thrones series. The content on Book Analysis was created by Game of Thrones fans, with the aim of providing a thorough in-depth analysis and commentary to complement and provide an additional perspective to the incredible world George R.R. Martin created in his books.

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How to Read the Game of Thrones Books in Order

Quick links, where to start reading a song of ice and fire, what to read after the main books, don't read the side books before the game of thrones books.

The success of the Game of Thrones franchise has only been elevated by the unprecedented rise of House of the Dragon . The shows have become mainstays for HBO and Max, despite the controversial Game of Thrones ending. Multiple spin-offs are currently in various stages of development, including The Sea Snake , The Hedge Knight , and The Golden Empire . The various shows have secured a place among the most successful TV franchises.

The franchise did not start with the shows, however. George R. R. Martin's books were the basis for the beloved TV universe. It all began with the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which begins with Game of Thrones and eventually splits into spin-off books about Westeros' history. The first five books have a relatively simple order, but figuring out how to read the rest of A Song of Ice and Fire can be a challenge.

The First Five Books are Completely Linear

Game of thrones star peter dinklage revealed as key character in wicked movie.

The reading order for the original five books is fairly simple. Readers should start with the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire's publication order. It can be identified by the title that made the TV show famous: A Game of Thrones . After that title, A Clash of Kings follows, then A Storm of Swords . A Feast for Crows is the fourth book in the series. A Dance with Dragons followed as the final published A Song of Ice and Fire Book . Martin plans to write two more for the main series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring .

A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons have a fairly unique reading order, compared to the rest of the series. Instead of including every Point of View character, Martin instead elected to include only characters from specific geographic areas in each book. Tyrion and Jon Snow's perspectives, for instance, are presented in A Dance with Dragons , rather than A Feast for Crows . Despite the scattered POVs, it is best to read those books in release order, as it provides more context for many of the events on the Wall. In essence, all A Song of Ice and Fire books should be read in the same order that they were published.

The next book, The Winds of Winter is still in development . Martin has been working on the book for about 13 years. He has not been open about any potential upcoming release date. He has released and read some sample chapters from The Winds of Winter , but the official book remains unpublished. There is no way to know in which order the sample chapters should be read, and readers should understand that they will be changed before publication. For those who have finished reading the sample chapters, and who are still waiting for The Winds of Winter , there are companion books and novellas that fill in key elements of Westeros' backstory.

The Books That Inspired House of the Dragon Aren't Officially Mainline Westeros

10 most satisfying game of thrones scenes, ranked.

Anyone waiting for The Winds of Winter can still read more from the A Song of Ice and Fire universe. The companion novels generally explore the lives of the people of Westeros long before the fall of House Targaryen. While they do cover Westerosi history before Aegon's Conquest , pre-Targaryen history is sparse and lacks much detail. The majority of Martin's pre- A Game of Thrones work centers around the choice of Targaryen kings and queens. The rise and fall of the dragons is central to his storytelling.

The first novella, The Princess and the Queen released in 2013 and should be followed by The Rogue Prince and The Sons of the Dragon , which breaks the release order. After all, Sons of the Dragon was released after another book and collection that explores Westerosi history. Generally, those three stories are optional, however, as they are expanded upon in Fire & Blood and The World of Ice & Fire . The others inform the rest of the universe and flesh out the slim novellas into full stories and arcs.

The best reading order for the pre- A Song of Ice and Fire books is to read The World of Ice & Fire , followed by Fire & Blood , then A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms . The other novellas can be read afterward or prior, but they should be viewed as a supplemental aspect of the storytelling and not entirely necessary for understanding much of the narrative. The World of Ice & Fire and Fire & Blood inform House of the Dragon , while A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms refers to Ser Dunk the Tall , who will be a deuteragonist in The Hedge Knight .

The Books Need To Be Read in Order

10 best members of the small council in game of thrones, ranked.

The side books are important, but they are not quite essential to understanding the world of A Song of Ice and Fire . The World of Ice and Fire is meant to be an in-universe exploration of Westerosi history, told by Maester Yandel. As a Maester hoping to capture the favor of the kings — both King Robert and King Joffrey, as Yandel lived through Robert's death — the entire storyline is flooded with a biased narrative provided by an unreliable narrator. To read the book without context can spoil the effect that Martin was hoping to achieve.

Fire & Blood is similarly structured, though it is written by Archmaester Gyldayn, rather than Maester Yandel. It features similar levels of bias, and it also provides hints at the future of the series. Attempting to understand it without much-needed context about Robert's Rebellion can strip the text of its impact. Much like A Song of Ice and Fire , Fire & Blood is not a complete story, as it is both waiting for the conclusion of the mainline series and for the follow-up volume, which Martin is calling Blood & Fire . It will follow the slow decline of the Targaryen dynasty, while Fire & Blood largely focused on the rise, maintenance, and the Dance of the Dragons .

10 Brutal Game of Thrones Deaths HBO Was Forced to Tone Down

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is especially informed by prior books, but it is the one exception to any reading order. The story follows Ser Duncan and a young and uncrowned Aegon V, while they engage in various antics around the realm. It has a much lighter tone than the rest of the franchise, but understanding the events of A Song of Ice and Fire provides more insight into the characters and their motivations. It provides a dark and dreary tone underlying the storyline, and it makes for a much more interesting conflict when the characters' endings are both horrible and set in stone.

House Targaryen is known for conquest and a harsh, brutal nature. The companion books provide insight into what the Targaryens were like before Daenerys Targaryen became the last official member of her House, but they also inform the themes of A Song of Ice and Fire . Their actions are proof that one family cannot have such a long and unquestionable rule. To fully understand their story, readers must first look at the main series before picking up side novels. It will also help readers learn more about the fates of every character in House of the Dragon .

House of the Dragon Season 2 premieres June 16 on HBO and Max.

Game Of Thrones

Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros, while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for a millennia.

Release Date April 17, 2011

Cast Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke

Main Genre Drama

Genres Drama, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Rating TV-MA

Creator David Benioff, D.B. Weiss

Production Company Home Box Office (HBO), Television 360Grok! Studio

Number of Episodes 73

Network HBO Max

Streaming Service(s) HBO Max

How to Read the Game of Thrones Books in Order

Complete List of Game of Thrones Books in Order (George R.R. Martin)

By: Author Jen - MMB Book Blog

Posted on Published: 25 January 2024 - Last updated: 18 February 2024

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The Game of Thrones books are a series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. To fully grasp the plot, it’s advisable to read the Game of Thrones books in order.

This is a complete list of the Game of Thrones series in chronological order.

Disclosure : This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Game of Thrones Books in Order: Simple List

This list contains the main novels in the series as well as prequels and companion books.

Game of Thrones Main Novels

A Game of Thrones

A Clash of Kings

A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons
The Winds of Winter (Forthcoming)
A Dream of Spring (Forthcoming)

Game of Thrones Prequels/Companion Books

Fire and Blood
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Tales of Dunk and Egg

The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight

Game of Thrones Books in Order: FAQs

What are the game of thrones books about.

The Games of Thrones books collectively go by the name A Song of Ice and Fire. The novels were the inspiration behind the hugely successful HBO tv show Game of Thrones .

The story is set in the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos and features a large ensemble cast of characters. The primary plot revolves around the power struggles and conflicts among noble families as they vie for control of the Iron Throne and rule over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Additionally, there are other significant plotlines involving the threat of the White Walkers, the mysterious creatures beyond the Wall in the North.

The series is known for its complex characters, intricate political plots, and unpredictable twists. It combines elements of medieval history, fantasy, and political intrigue, creating a rich and immersive world.

While it did follow the Game of Thrones books in order, the tv series was known for having a disappointing end conclusion. George R.R. Martin is yet to finish writing the final books, leaving fans wondering if the final episodes would have been more satisfying had Martin himself written the ending.

How many Game of Thrones books are there?

George R.R. Martin has released five out of a planned seven Game of Thrones books and is currently writing the sixth novel, The Winds of Winter . A seventh novel, A Dream of Spring , is planned. While there are technically five books that have been released, both A Storm of Swords and A Dance of Dragons have been split into two separate novels as it has a whopping 1056 pages in total!

Which books was House of Dragon tv series based on?

While Game of Thrones is based on the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series, House of the Dragon is based on his history book, Fire & Blood. Fire & Blood serves as a companion and prequel to the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series. Fire & Blood focuses on the history of House Targaryen, a noble house known for its dragons, and covers events that took place in the world of Westeros centuries before the events of the main series.

What are the Dunk and Egg stories?

The Dunk and Egg stories, written by George R.R. Martin, are a series of ongoing novellas set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. Serving as prequels to the main novels, the stories follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight who later becomes a legendary member of the Kingsguard, and his squire Egg, who eventually becomes King Aegon V Targaryen of Westeros. The stories begin with their meeting eighty-nine years before the events of the main novels.

Game of Thrones Books in Order Book: Descriptions

Game of thrones.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.

The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

Throughout Westeros, the cold winds are rising.

From the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding lands of Winterfell, chaos reigns as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms stake their claims through tempest, turmoil and war.

As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky – a comet the colour of blood and flame – five factions struggle for control of a divided land. Brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night.

Against a backdrop of incest, fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory is measured in blood.

A Storm of Swords 1 – Steel and Snow

A STORM OF SWORDS: STEEL AND SNOW is the FIRST part of the third volume in the series.

Winter approaches Westeros like an angry beast.

The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud. In the northern wastes, a horde of hungry, savage people steeped in the dark magic of the wilderness is poised to invade the Kingdom of the North where Robb Stark wears his new-forged crown. And Robb’s defences are ranged against the South, the land of the cunning and cruel Lannisters, who have his younger sisters in their power.

Throughout Westeros, the war for the Iron Throne rages more fiercely than ever, but if the Wall is breached, no king will live to claim it.

A Storm of Swords 2 – Blood and Gold

A STORM OF SWORDS: BLOOD AND GOLD is the SECOND part of the third volume in the series.

The Starks are scattered.

Robb Stark may be King in the North, but he must bend to the will of the old tyrant Walder Frey if he is to hold his crown. And while his youngest sister, Arya, has escaped the clutches of the depraved Cersei Lannister and her son, the capricious boy-king Joffrey, Sansa Stark remains their captive.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, Daenerys Stormborn, the last heir of the Dragon King, delivers death to the slave-trading cities of Astapor and Yunkai as she approaches Westeros with vengeance in her heart.

A Feast For Crows

The Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne.

The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life. The Martells of Dorne and the Starks of Winterfell seek vengeance for their dead. Euron Crow’s Eye, as black a pirate as ever raised a sail, returns from the smoking ruins of Valyria to claim the Iron Isles.

From the icy north, where Others threaten the Wall, apprentice Maester Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe in arms to the Citadel. As plots, intrigue and battle threaten to engulf Westeros, victory will go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel and the coldest hearts.

A Dance with Dragon 1: Dreams and Dust

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, new threats are emerging from every direction.

Tyrion Lannister, having killed his father, and wrongfully accused of killing his nephew, King Joffrey, has escaped from King’s Landing with a price on his head.

To the north lies the great Wall of ice and stone – a structure only as strong as those guarding it. Eddard Stark’s bastard son Jon Snow has been elected 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. But Jon has enemies both inside and beyond the Wall. And in the east Daenerys Targaryen struggles to hold a city built on dreams and dust.

A Dance with Dragon 2: After the Feast

The future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance.

In King’s Landing the Queen Regent, Cersei Lannister, awaits trial. She has been abandoned by all those she trusted; while in the eastern city of Yunkai her brother Tyrion has been sold as a slave. From the Wall, having left his wife and the Red Priestess Melisandre under the protection of Jon Snow, Stannis Baratheon marches south to confront the Boltons at Winterfell. But beyond the Wall the wildling armies are massing for an assault…

On all sides bitter conflicts are reigniting, played out by a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves. The tides of destiny will inevitably lead to the greatest dance of all.

This is the complete list of Game of Thrones books in order. As I mentioned earlier, there are two more books in the pipeline. I’m hoping George R R Martin manages to complete them so fans will be able to read his vision for how the series should have ended.

I’ll keep this post updated as and when new books are released.

If you’re looking for more reading inspiration why not check out my other book lists and book reviews. I have book reviews listed by author and book reviews listed by genre . I also have author reading lists and series order lists to help inspire you.

Related Lists

You may also be interested in these other author books lists .

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The Original Reviews of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones

Long before its tv adaptation became a global phenomenon, here's what the critics thought of the first volume in martin's a song of ice and fire series.

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When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.

“George R.R. Martin’s new novel, A Game of Thrones , is the first in an epic series about a land in which the seasons shift between periods of seemingly endless summer and seemingly endless winter. The story begins with the kingdom of Winterfell facing both external and internal dangers. Beyond her borders, the cold is returning, a dragon prince is scheming to win back his lost kingdom, and the eggs of supposedly long extinct dragons are beginning to hatch. Within Winterfell itself, war soon erupts when the king is murdered by a family grasping for unlawful power.

Many fans of sword-and-sorcery will enjoy the epic scope of this book, something of a change of pace for Martin, who has spent the last decade working for television and who has long been honored for his award-winning stories (e.g., ‘Sandkings’). Still, to my mind, this opening installment suffers from one-dimensional characters and less than memorable imagery.”

– John H. Riskind, The Washington Post , June 28, 1996

“George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones— a 694-page novel that begins a series — is in many ways a tale fit for a king. Its tapestry is satisfyingly rich and complex, weaving together dozens of characters, major and minor, in a wide spectrum of shades of hero and villain, all vivid and memorable. The settings are equally diverse and evocative. Martin writes as convincingly of tart juices oozing from an apple as of sleet on the side of a mountain, and his book is as much an adventure of the senses as it is of the mind. On the other hand, the thimble-full of living dead and the soupcon of dragons we’re served here add little to the story. Or, they may indeed be setting the groundwork for sequels—which seems clear at the end—but their presence in A Game of Thrones seems little more than frost and steam on the window.

“…this is an old story, but A Game of Thrones is so well played that, like a vibrant re-make of an old hit record, you can enjoy almost every beat of it. Indeed, Arthurian/Shakespearean clashes among great and lesser lineages, with all the opportunities they afford for exploration of such perennial themes as honor, loyalty, ambition, love in all its forms, are always welcome subjects for science fiction and fantasy. Such political and personal strìngs served as superb accompaniment to the science fiction in Dune, and they’re often heart-rending, always provocative and appealing, to behold here—though as a center-stage performance, not as background or foreground for fantasy which is barely there.

But the dragon thread has other problems. Published as a stand-alone novella in the July 2006 Asimov’s Magazine (‘Blood of the Dragon’), it follows the trials and exploits of the overthrown King’s two lineal descendants—a brother who is a claimant to the throne with no army, and his sister, whom the brother gives as a bride to a Ghenghis Khan-type character reigning with a vast army in this England’s version of Europe and Asia, in hopes of getting that army to cross the ‘narrow sea’ and reclaim the pretender`s throne. The descriptive passages are marvelous—you can smell the spice, and taste it in every cup of wine Martin renders—but the story as a whole is not special.

“These other threads show us two different daughters, a romantic and a tomboy, and how they fare in these less-and-more than chivalrous times; a bastard and a ‘true-born’ hero and another son whose legs are paralyzed but whose mind soars; another family where one son is handsome and vicious and evil yet brave, and his brother—a dwarf, my favorite character in the novel—is conniving, yet so honorable that he pays his debt of gold to a cruel, stupid jailor whom the dwarf has talked into taking a message that will free him. Yes, I liked this dwarf so much that I truly felt glad when, after months of travail, he finally finds comfort in a prostitute’s arms. The book is so good at this, so real and effective in its complex characterizations, that I would vote it an award just for that, and the dragons be damned.”

– Paul Levinson, Tangent Magazine , Fall 1996

“In a world where the approaching winter will last four decades, kings and queens, knights and renegades struggle for control of a throne. Some fight with sword and mace, others with magic and poison. Beyond the Wall to the north, meanwhile, the Others are preparing their army of the dead to march south as the warmth of summer drains from the land. After more than a decade devoted primarily to TV and screen work, Martin makes a triumphant return to high fantasy with this extraordinarily rich new novel, the first of a trilogy. Although conventional in form, the book stands out from similar work by Eddings, Brooks and others by virtue of its superbly developed characters, accomplished prose and sheer bloody-mindedness. Although the romance of chivalry is central to the culture of the Seven Kingdoms, and tournaments, derring-do and handsome knights abound, these trappings merely give cover to dangerous men and women who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. When Lord Stark of Winterfell, an honest man, comes south to act as the King’s chief councilor, no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control. It is fascinating to watch Martin’s characters mature and grow, particularly Stark’s children, who stand at the center of the book. Martin’s trophy case is already stuffed with major prizes, including Hugos, Nebulas, Locus Awards and a Bram Stoker. He’s probably going to have to add another shelf, at least.”

– Publishers Weekly , July 29, 1996

“After a long silence, the author of the cult The Armageddon Rag (1983) returns with the first of a fantasy series entitled, insipidly enough, A Song of Ice and Fire . In the Seven Kingdoms, where the unpredictable seasons may last decades, three powerful families allied themselves in order to smash the ruling Targaryens and depose their Mad King, Aerys II. Robert Baratheon claimed the throne and took to wife Tywin Lannister’s daughter, Cersei; Ned Stark returned north to gloomy Winterfell with its massive, ancient Wall farther to the north that keeps wildings and unspeakable creatures from invading. Some years later, Robert, now drunk and grossly fat, asks Ned to come south and help him govern; reluctantly, since he mistrusts the treacherous Lannisters, Ned complies. Honorable Ned soon finds himself caught up in a whirl of plots, espionage, whispers, and double-dealing and learns to his horror that the royal heir, Joffrey, isn’t Robert’s son at all but, rather, the product of an incestuous union between the Queen and her brother Jaime—who murdered the Mad King and earned the infamous nickname Kingslayer. Ned attempts to bargain with Cersei and steels himself to tell Robert—but too late. Swiftly the Lannisters murder the King, consign Ned to a dungeon, and prepare to seize the throne, opposed only by the remaining Starks and Baratheons. On the mainland, meanwhile, the brutal and stupid Viserys Targaryen sells his sister Dany to a barbarian horse-warrior in return for a promise of armies to help him reconquer the Seven Kingdoms. A vast, rich saga, with splendid characters and an intricate plot flawlessly articulated against a backdrop of real depth and texture. Still, after 672 dense pages, were you expecting a satisfying resolution? You won’t get it: Be prepared for a lengthy series with an indefinitely deferred conclusion.”

– Kirkus , July 1, 1996

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Game of Thrones: the series review

After a deep breath, we look at the full run

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Imagine if Lord of the Rings ended with Aragorn riding out into the abandoned wastes of Mordor, his crown forsaken, his throne left to an uncertain fate. Imagine, growing from out of the ashes of Sauron’s dominion, tender blades of green grass. That’s where David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ Game of Thrones left us: the messianic king-who-wasn’t, Jon Snow , riding out of Westeros in company with the Free Folk to bring life back to death’s frozen domain. The throne, over which so much blood was shed, melted to slag; the queen who never got a chance to take it for her own killed in its shadow; the dragon that set fire to tens of thousands at her command flying away into the falling ash toward no-one-knows-where.

What’s left is a council of misfits , a wise and peaceful king, and a broken kingdom remade a little different, perhaps a little better, than before. No locked-in golden age, no heroic promised one to wear the crown, no satisfaction at seeing people good and bad receive their karmic sentences. Game of Thrones leaves all that to cleaner, lighter fiction .

And just in case it still feels too cozy, we see characters we’ve come to love over the years sneer and laugh at the idea of democracy, still secure at the apex of the feudal system that’s been ripping their country apart since the days of the Long Night 8,000 years ago. The dragon — an avatar of war capable of leveling any city in Westeros — is still out there, too. It’s a world that will surely see misery again before too long.

game of thrones season 8 dragon attack on king’s landing

The series’ ending unleashed a seemingly bottomless geyser of fan discontent ranging from mile-long Twitter threads to an honest-to-God petition for HBO to remake the eighth season from scratch. The complaints, by and large, feel typical to the “Peak TV” era: the uproar you’d expect from the sort of people who’ve interpreted Emilia Clarke’s traumatized, brutal Daenerys Targaryen as a one-dimensional message about girl power; anger that such and such a character “deserved” some specific ending they didn’t receive. Much of it boils down to viewers interpreting their own discomfort over the show’s failures.

But was Game of Thrones ever a show about fostering satisfaction? Was its aim to make people feel good? It’s hard to watch Burn Gorman as Karl Tanner lord over the rape of Craster’s wives, or the City Watch murdering infants in their beds, and say that it was pure escapism.

The end of Thrones is a watershed moment for the way our society engages with art. As Vulture critic Matt Zoller Seitz put it, Game of Thrones may well be the last show we watch together , a crossover hit positioned at the same kind of fork in the road in our viewing habits as the finale of M*A*S*H was in 1983. From here on out, the future of television is a lawless maze where Netflix originals, Disney, and premium streaming services stalk ailing cable TV through ever-shifting viewing habits. There’s just too much out there, and in too many places, for America to plausibly come together again for appointment viewing anytime soon. So what, now that it’s in the rear view, was the show trying to say? What did it bring to popular culture, and what did our reaction say about us?

Women have been at the heart of most discussions of Game of Thrones since before the credits rolled on the 2011 premiere. How many women are there? How often are they naked? How many terrible experiences can Sansa Stark go through before it’s too many? But one topic has always dominated: power.

The women of Thrones , with the agency and martial prowess that they’ve managed to obtain, built kingdoms, yet the depiction of their power is anything but glamorous. Moments lauded as feminist triumphs — Sansa feeding her rapist to his own starving dogs; Daenerys attacking a Lannister convoy from dragonback and burning it to cinders — give us sickening glimpses into the minds of women who’ve been taught to behave like the men who beat and brutalized them. It’s a powerful condemnation of the systems in which the women of Westeros live, and a warning to those who would applaud women for occupying the same inherently violent and oppressive positions traditionally held by men.

“Everywhere she goes,” says Tyrion Lannister of Daenerys, “evil men die. And we cheer her for it, and she grows more powerful and sure that she is good and right.” He might as well speak for the viewers, and who could blame us? As long as Daenerys was burning and crucifying slave traders a world away from anyone we cared about, the violence she used to cement her power as a monarch was easier to relish as just desserts for people we could write off as unequivocally evil.

mirri maz duur and jorah in game of thrones season 1

The death that launched it all, though, is harder to swallow. Mirri Maz Duur, a midwife raped and enslaved by the khalasar of Daenerys’ then-husband Khal Drogo and later taken under Daenerys’ protection along with the people of her ruined village, is the first person burned alive by the future queen. Her death foretells much of what comes after.

When Daenerys declares Mirri Maz Duur beyond the reach of Drogo’s riders, the midwife has already been raped, and the people she tended to butchered and enslaved. Later, after Mirri reveals her sorcerous powers, and tricks Daenerys into sacrificing her unborn child in a futile attempt to save a dying Khal Drogo, Daenerys tells her, “I saved you,” with clear disbelief. She can’t imagine that the older woman heard her speak of giving birth to a prophesied conqueror or reclaiming her homeland with the Dothraki behind her with anything but excitement at the prospect of her liberator continuing her good works. In Daenerys’ mind, her sparing Mirri’s life entitled her to the remainder of it.

Mirri Maz Duur is the lesson Daenerys refuses again and again to learn. Betrayed by the midwife, Daenerys burns her alive. Later, in Meereen, when Daenerys’ freedman supporter Mossador goes against her orders by killing an imprisoned agent of the slavers, she has him beheaded. The people you conquer don’t have to love you for amending the destruction of their worlds and the violation of their bodies with “and now you’re free!” Their hearts and lives don’t belong to you because you killed the people who used to own them. More than anything, Daenerys’ story is a parable about the poisonous nature of power, about its tendency to pervert even the best of intentions, to render monstrous on a grand scale those who as individuals are driven by kindness and compassion.

daenerys eating heart game of thrones season 1

If power itself is inherently corrosive, why should we celebrate it when women manage to claim some for themselves? Why do we expect them to be better than the men who came before them? Arya Stark’s transformation from a spirited little girl into an icy killing machine, Daenerys’ following in her husband’s footsteps as a conqueror and warlord —these things are tragedies, not triumphs. The show’s unflinching depictions of the atrocities perpetrated by women advances the idea of the complicated female character ahead of the more wish fulfillment-focused Strong Female Character. By depicting women as complete human beings with all the ugliness that entails, Game of Thrones challenged viewers’ willingness to applaud cruelty when it’s done by someone beautiful, aggrieved, and charismatic.

What doesn’t kill you

Hand in hand with depicting women with power, Game of Thrones pushed deep into exploring trauma, the people it forms, and the societies they form in turn. By following the lives of people who endure rape, disability, child abuse, domestic violence, and other traumatic events and incorporating those events into the continuum of daily life, Game of Thrones did more than flesh out the hostility and pain of medieval existence. The series mainstreamed the idea that such suffering is closer to universal than exceptional, that the things we most fear to see and to name out loud are as much a part of ourselves as anything else.

Exposure and openness are essential components of empathy. When part of human experience is deemed untouchable, it isolates from one another those who’ve been through it. Game of Thrones ’ frankness about rape and abuse — often the cause of much controversy among critics and viewers — brought to popular entertainment a new level of honesty about trauma and laid out clearly the link between suffering abuse and behaving abusively. When Sansa feeds Ramsay Bolton to his hunting dogs, it’s difficult not to credit his smug “I’ll always be a part of you” as true. The young woman she was before Joffrey, Littlefinger, and Ramsay got their claws into her would never have been capable of such willful cruelty, much less of enjoying it.

People do what they’re taught to do, with very few exceptions. Cersei’s cruelty toward others and obsession with control can be traced back not just to her drunken batterer and rapist of a husband, King Robert, but to the domineering father who sold her as a teenager into that violent marriage. Arya Stark makes a twisted game of killing her enemies in the same methods they themselves employed in earning her ire — butchering the Frey clan to the last member at a feast, mocking Ser Gregor’s henchman Polliver with his own words in the moments before she skewers him. When her sister Sansa discovers a bag of stolen faces under her bed after their eventual reunion, it’s as much a revelation that Arya herself is gone as it is of the death and despoilment of her victims.

In Theon Greyjoy’s broken, twisted body; in the scars that crisscross Arya’s torso; in Sansa’s smile at the sound of starving dogs tearing into a living man’s body, Game of Thrones brings into the light the ways in which suffering shapes lives and echoes across generations. When Daenerys burns King’s Landing from dragonback, killing tens of thousands, it’s not some out-of-left-field gotcha moment, but the culmination of a lifetime of being treated as property, of being chased and beaten and raped and taught again and again that only fear and strength are worthy of respect. Those experiences didn’t magically transmute Daenerys into a better, kinder person. They only taught her which end of the whip she wanted to be on.

The show is remarkably empathetic as it witnesses suffering, bringing us into the skins of characters both beloved and hateful. Cersei’s nude walk of atonement — during which she is pelted with refuse, spat on, and jeered by a crowd of thousands — is filmed quietly and without prurience. Cersei’s abjection can be read as punishment for her misdeeds, but the intimate camera work and Lena Headey’s vulnerable, emotional performance suggest instead an opportunity to connect and empathize with someone frequently dismissed as monstrous. By showing what it feels like to endure trauma, Game of Thrones removes all easy resolution, forcing us to acknowledge the humanity of the characters.

Here there be dragons

drogon at king’s landing in game of thrones series finale

Game of Thrones ’ keen sense for humanizing characters and establishing their vulnerabilities extended beyond the purely personal. Over its eight-season run, as the show built inexorably to the kind of fantasy spectacle that has formed the backbone of the genre since Smaug burned Lake-town in Tolkien’s 1937 children’s story The Hobbit, Benioff and Weiss’ series explored a similar fragility and realism toward mythic elements. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in the lives of Daenerys’ three dragons, symbols of epic grandeur introduced as hatchlings and grown to monstrous immensity by the show’s end. The devastation wrought by the dragons during their growth became an increasingly prominent part of the show, especially after the largest of the three, Drogon, burned a young girl to death at the start of season 5.

The sullying of fantasy imagery again complicates the show’s moral framework. The dragons are not strictly awe-inspiring. They cannot be understood as a mere accessory to Daenerys’ personal myth. Rather, they become, over time, an expression of the worst excesses of war and empire, of violence on a scale so grotesque that no single person could ever hope to guide it. Just as Daenerys’ decision to chain her dragons under her citadel is an attempt to find a way to rule through mercy rather than force, to prevent the deaths of any other children, her eventual decision to unleash them is an explicit turning away from that empathy. The dragons literally separate her from the rest of humanity, carrying their mother high above the armies and cities she lays to waste, freeing her from proximity to the grisly consequences of her ambitions.

For all their size and strength and destructive power, the dragons are fragile, too. The sense of majesty and wonder they bring with them can be shot down, ripped apart, and profaned. The show’s most epic spectacles, many of which have the dragons at their heart, are characterized by a paired understanding of the genre’s power to awe and terrify and of its terrible vulnerability, which catalyzes those emotions. The dragons are the beating heart of the show’s mythic iconography. The revelation that they too are just flesh and bone is devastating on an almost primal level, reaching back into our collective childhood to crush something wild and free and beautiful.

In that loss of illusion, though, is an opportunity to understand ourselves and the world a little better, to see the cracks in the stories we tell ourselves, the weakness and pain behind the things we idolize and hate. It’s a chance to appreciate not just our own incredible fragility but the fragility of our dreams. The dragons, like the Night King and his army of the dead, are lenses through which to view the show’s human dramas. They magnify and render impossible to ignore the worst distortions of both the fictional Westerosi society and our own imperialist death cult of a nation, a place where every year we accept children shot dead in the streets as the price of law and order, where war never ends even in the shadow of melting ice caps and rising seas. They are extensions of our cruelty toward each other.

The laws of gods and men

Game of Thrones is not a perfect work of art. From the repetitive “where are my dragons?” antics of season 2 to the hacky 1990s Hercules: The Legendary Journeys kitsch of Dorne, the series had its fair share of missteps. Its dialogue was often exceptional but never consistently great and the White Walkers were frequently inert as a screen presence. And in adapting the crucial “broken man” speech from George R.R. Martin’s A Feast for Crows — a monologue by an implied former outlaw turned septon on the pity that’s due to men destroyed in mind and spirit by war — the show utterly whiffed, delivering a short, dull parable on the futility of pacifism. But for all its stumbles, Benioff and Weiss’ take on Martin’s source material is still a daring and uncompromising achievement.

Nothing in television history has given so much screen time over to victims of sexual assault. Nothing has dug as deeply into the way we worship our leaders and ignore the price the helpless pay for their posturing and self-aggrandizement. Nothing has dared to so consistently force viewers to confront their own distaste for the price of a kind of spectacle that generations of Hollywood blockbusters have trained us all to think of as bloodless and neat. There is a conscious and purposeful ugliness to Game of Thrones that pushes past the bounds of entertainment, that asks us to scale mountains of corpses and wander through the ash-choked ruins of great cities not for the thrill of it but to better comprehend the madness and misery of our own world, to make sense of wars we’ll never see with our own eyes and suffering that goes unmarked in every corner of society.

As a culture, we’re not used to being challenged by our fiction. Disney has found unprecedented success by pushing Easy Listening entertainment to its apex, guaranteeing audiences at least three or four digestible and more or less interchangeable movies each year. Art that does deal in bloodshed tends to treat it flippantly or as something that ups its “cool” factor — think the John Wick movies or Ridley Scott’s soporific Gladiator. Game of Thrones sold itself on violence, but in practice the bloodshed was often anything but fun to watch. I doubt you’d find many people eager to revisit the sight of Princess Shireen burning alive, or of the Mountain cracking Prince Oberyn’s skull like a rotten egg.

In the course of the show’s run, a story about the Hound’s childhood is repeated twice: first by Littlefinger and then, definitively, by the badly burn-scarred knight himself. The story goes that as a boy, Sandor’s older brother, Gregor, caught him playing with one of his toys. Without a word, he seized Sandor and forced his face against a lit brazier, holding him there until his skin ran like melted wax. Sandor’s voice breaks as he tells the story. In that burned man’s voice, seething with old grief and rage, in his constant reliving of the agony around which his whole broken, painful life took shape, Game of Thrones found purpose. Not to press our faces to the fire, but to show us those already burned, and teach us how to hold their suffering.

Gretchen Felker-Martin is a horror writer with Thuban Press, 2dCloud, and others. Follow her on Twitter @scumbelievable .

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Game of Thrones

Where to watch.

Watch Game of Thrones with a subscription on Max, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Cast & Crew

Peter Dinklage

Tyrion Lannister

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Ser Jaime Lannister

Lena Headey

Queen Cersei Lannister

Emilia Clarke

Daenerys Targaryen

Aidan Gillen

Petyr Baelish

Kit Harington

Popular TV on Streaming

Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., series info.

Screen Rant

I'm far more excited for the next game of thrones spinoff after hbo's surprising jon snow sequel decision.

HBO isn't moving forward with Kit Harington's Jon Snow spinoff, and that's actually a promising sign for the future of its Game of Thrones franchise.

The Jon Snow spinoff cancellation shows HBO's commitment to quality for upcoming Game of Thrones spinoffs.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the next Game of Thrones spinoff, and HBO's patient and cautious approach bodes very well for it.
The upcoming spinoff has big advantages over a Jon Snow sequel, thanks to existing source material to adapt and clear distance from Game of Thrones season 8.

HBO isn't moving forward with the Jon Snow sequel show, and that's a promising sign for its next Game of Thrones spinoff. The network has had various prequels in the works since Game of Thrones ' ending - though only House of the Dragon has made it to screen so far - but Jon Snow's show would have bucked the trend. With Harington set to return, this would have been the first sequel to the main show, directly continuing part of its story.

After almost two years in development, Harington revealed to Screen Rant in April 2024 that the Jon Snow spinoff is no longer in development at HBO . It's a surprising development, given it it would likely have been a big hit, but it came for an unsurprising reason: Harington and his team of writers struggled to find a story for Game of Thrones ' Jon Snow spinoff . While there is some disappointment in the decision, as it means not seeing the actor return, it's not only for the best, but encouraging for the entire franchise.

Game Of Thrones Cast - Where Are They Now?

Jon snow's spinoff cancellation suggests a knight of the seven kingdoms is great, the game of thrones sequel not happening reveals more about hbo's spinoff approach.

Jon Snow's sequel not happening bodes well for other upcoming Game of Thrones spinoffs , because it strongly re-affirms HBO's desire to only have the very best stories on screen. The Snow show would effectively have been a replacement for Game of Thrones season 9 : continuing the main character's arc, building on the main show in a direct way, and potentially even bringing back other popular actors. In terms of ratings, at least, it would be a no-brainer. And yet they're not making it.

House of the Dragon was a great first prequel, and the implication here is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' story will be just as good.

That's a very clear message that HBO is prepared to be patient with its Westeros franchise , and should mean great things for the next spinoff that is confirmed: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight . That show received a straight-to-series order, similar to House of the Dragon , rather than having to go to the pilot stage. There is obviously a lot of faith in that project, not only in its ability to draw in viewers, but more so in the quality of its story. House of the Dragon was a great first prequel, and the implication here is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms ' story will be just as good.

That feels even more likely when looking at the history of other, rejected Game of Thrones spinoffs . HBO canceled Bloodmoon after a $30 million pilot had already been filmed; even the Dance of the Dragons went through various failed stages of development before it eventually became House of the Dragon . Combine all of these elements together, and it becomes even more exciting that there is an idea strong enough for this to move forward.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is expected to release on HBO and Max in 2025. Game of Thrones seasons 1-8 and House of the Drago n season 1 currently stream on Max, with HOTD season 2 coming on June 16, 2024.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Has Big Advantages Over A Jon Snow Spinoff

It's easy to see why the hedge knight is happening & jon snow's sequel is not.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight does, in fairness, have things a little easier than making a show about Jon Snow. The biggest of these is quite simple: there are books to adapt. Martin hasn't yet finished A Song of Ice and Fire, never mind thought about what happens to Jon Snow after that , so the sequel was working without any kind of blueprint. While Martin does plan on writing more Dunk & Egg novellas (which could present its own challenges later on), there is at least a clear starting point and structure, with three books published so far.

It is also, perhaps, easier to make a Game of Thrones prequel than a sequel. That's not just because of Martin's works existing, with plenty of worldbuilding to pull from yet nothing after, but because of the backlash to Game of Thrones season 8 . Trying to make something that continues on from there, but also avoid its mistakes and the parts viewers disliked, is not an easy task. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight can completely stand apart, but a Jon Snow sequel would always be directed connected to it, and the former is a lot easier for the franchise's future.

Game of Thrones

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Game of thrones, common sense media reviewers.

Artful fantasy series heavy on sexuality and violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

The series is all about power -- who wants it and

Most characters behave in questionable, unethical

Women are often depicted as objects, subject to th

Frequent extremely graphic, gory violence, includi

Extensive full-frontal nudity; sex is graphically

Words such as "f--k," "c--t," "c--k," "s--t," "bit

Nothing obvious on-screen, though Ed Sheeran makes

Pipe smoking. Characters are frequently depicted d

Positive Messages

The series is all about power -- who wants it and how they get it. Themes of family, faith, and loyalty run throughout, as do moral ambiguity and betrayal.

Positive Role Models

Most characters behave in questionable, unethical ways, but some make moral choices. A few heroes -- like Brienne of Tarth and Samwell Tarly -- dedicate their lives to loyalty and knowledge.

Diverse Representations

Women are often depicted as objects, subject to the whims (and violence) of men. People of color are shown as barbaric or enslaved. LGBTQ+ characters are few and far between, all falling into clichés of being killed and/or sexually deviant. Bran uses a wheelchair but the character leans on disability stereotypes of having magical powers. Tyrion is the lone positive area, as one of the only roles for a little person on television that has depth and character development over the course of the series.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent extremely graphic, gory violence, including murders, executions, and their aftermath. Large-scale battles with long, gruesome fight scenes. Swords, crossbows, clubs, and many other weapons are visible. Sexual violence is graphically depicted. Skeletons, zombie-like creatures, and dragons are among the show's scary fantasy creatures.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Extensive full-frontal nudity; sex is graphically portrayed. Characters cheat on partners sexually, engage in sex work, use sex to bargain. Incest takes place between adults.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Words such as "f--k," "c--t," "c--k," "s--t," "bitch," "bastard," and more.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Nothing obvious on-screen, though Ed Sheeran makes a cameo. Game of Thrones -related merchandise available.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Pipe smoking. Characters are frequently depicted drinking excessively and sometimes behaving irresponsibly or violently as a result. Drugs used for various motives.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Game of Thrones (based on the novels by George R.R. Martin ) is a big-budget fantasy series that frequently depicts gory, brutal battles and graphic acts of violence (including against children and women), as well as lots of nudity and sexual acts, including incest, orgies, and sexual violence against multiple female characters. Strong language, including "f--k," is frequent. Although the series is well produced, even the most sympathetic characters make iffy choices, and morally ambiguous content is questionable for all, even adult viewers who will need to think critically about what they've just seen on-screen.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (190)
Kids say (364)

Based on 190 parent reviews

Too much hype for such a demeaning show!

What's the story.

Adapted from the popular series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin, GAME OF THRONES is set in the fictional medieval kingdom of Westeros and follows a large cast intertwined through political intrigue, emotional drama, and fierce battles. Throughout the seasons we meet characters like Lord Eddard Stark ( Sean Bean ), King Robert Baratheon ( Mark Addy ), Jon Snow ( Kit Harington ), Daenerys Targaryen ( Emilia Clarke ), and Tyrion Lannister ( Peter Dinklage ), all of whom fight for the right to sit on the Iron Throne. As the series progresses, betrayals change the political landscape of Westeros irreversibly, leading to ever more complicated alliances and plot twists. Not every character we meet makes it to the end.

Is It Any Good?

As with most HBO originals, this series benefits greatly from the budget and talent poured into its execution. Game of Thrones is an expertly produced epic and well acted, making it one of the most critically acclaimed series in history. It's easy to get drawn into the machinations of Westeros, and the complexity of the twists and turns make rewatches endlessly satisfying.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the impact of seeing sexual violence on television. Are the assaults depicted in Game of Thrones necessary for the story? Are there ways to convey sexual violence in a story without causing extra harm to viewers, including survivors who may be watching?

Is the show too gory ? Why do you think violence is so common in entertainment media, and does Game of Thrones take things too far? Why, or why not?

How are women and people of color portrayed? Why do you think that is? What are their roles in this series? Are they important players, or accessories ?

Premiere date : April 17, 2011
Cast : Peter Dinklage , Nikolaj Coster-Waldau , Lena Headey , Kit Harington
Network : HBO
Genre : Drama
Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Book Characters
TV rating : TV-MA
Awards : Emmy , Golden Globe
Last updated : October 8, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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IMAGES

Game of Thrones author George RR Martin Unveils Cover Of New Book
Game of Thrones: Guide to the Complete Series Hardcover Book
Game Of Thrones: How it went from a Bestselling Book to a World-known
Game of Thrones
Game Of Thrones books in order: the twists and the divergences
Buy A Game Of Thrones: 20th Anniversary Illustrated Edition- George Rr

COMMENTS

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A Game of Thrones
September 12, 2021. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1), George R.R. MartinA Game of Thrones is the first novel in A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin. It was first published on August 1, 1996.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin book review
Summary - 5/5. A Game of Thrones is the best opening book to a fantasy series you'll find. It has become a sensation for a reason - the TV series is brilliant, yes. But the first book is probably better. You get such a great feeling of grandeur but also a really personal feeling from some of the characters. One moment you're learning of ...
A Song of Fire and Ice (A Game of Thrones) Series Book Review
A Song of Fire and Ice is a dark, violent, and complex fantasy saga by George R.R. Martin, adapted from the TV series Game of Thrones. Read the review, age rating, and parents guide to learn more about the book's content, themes, and messages.
25 Years on, a Mixed Legacy for A Game of Thrones
A mixed review of the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which introduced a dark and political fantasy world. The review praises the characters, the prose, and the drama, but criticizes the plot and the genre betrayal.
A GAME OF THRONES
A fantasy epic of intrigue, war, and magic in the Seven Kingdoms, where three powerful families vie for the throne. Read the Kirkus review of the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, published in 1996.
A Game of Thrones Review: Winter is Coming
A comprehensive review of George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy novel, A Game of Thrones. The review analyzes the story, characters, dialogues, and writing style of the book, and praises its realism, detail, and complexity.
REVIEW: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones is never a chore, and the pacing is remarkably consistent throughout the book. Although A Game of Thrones is fantasy, the magical elements are of secondary importance, at least in this first volume of A Song of Ice and Fire. Instead, A Game of Thrones is driven by its wonderful cast of characters.
A Game of Thrones
Bran Stark is a young boy who watches his father, Lord Eddard Stark, execute Gared for abandoning his post as a member of the Night's Watch. After the execution, Eddard's two older sons, Robb and Jon, discover a gigantic dead direwolf and her six living cubs. The children adopt the pups as their own.
Book Review: A Game of Thrones
Some may lose interest in its plot, especially considering the sheer volume of the book series. The old-language also adds to this effect, as it may cause some readers to struggle following along. Overall, I would say that this book is certainly worth a try for someone who enjoys medieval-fantasy novels. Admittedly, it will take a while to read ...
'Game of Thrones' Book: George R. R. Martin Says He's Writing
George R. R. Martin at the Season 4 premiere of "Game of Thrones" in Manhattan. ... top authors and critics join the Book Review's podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world
Book Review: A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin
Book Review: A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin. I realize I am really late to this party (the book came out in the 1990s), but I usually am with everything reading related—there's just so much to read, and so little time to keep up, and school set me back on my fantasy reading quite a bit. But I wanted to read it, so I finally did.
A Game of Thrones: Book Review
Ned travels to the capital city of Westeros, King's Landing with his daughters Arya and Sansa. When they arrive in King's Landing, Ned learns that Jon Arryan's death was not an "accident. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. After learning how bad it has gotten in King's Landing, Ned uses all his power to try to fix the problems ...
Game of Thrones Book Reviews
This is a list of all the George R. R. Martin book reviews at The Fantasy Review. Game of Thrones Book Reviews. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4) A Dance With Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5)
A Game of Thrones Themes and Analysis
A Game of Thrones Themes Family. A primary theme of 'A Game of Thrones' is the bond associated with family.The story portrays how people's lives and decisions get influenced by their families. Jon Snow felt the strong impact of family on his life. Because he was born a bastard, he became a shadow in the House of Stark; this made him seek out meaning in his life, leading to him joining ...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire
I started "A Game of Thrones" very tentatively, partially because of the all the hype around the series and partially due to my own wariness regarding fantasy novels. My fears were completely unfounded; "A Game of Thrones" is a breath of fresh air for the genre, and is easily one of the best books I've read in recent years. Spoilers follow.
How to Read the Game of Thrones Books in Chronological Order
A guide for newcomers to George R.R. Martin's fantasy saga, covering the novels, companion books, and spin-offs. Learn about the Targaryen dynasty, the War of the Five Kings, and the characters of Westeros.
A Song of Fire and Ice (A Game of Thrones) Series
Alison L. Adult. April 12, 2023. age 10+. It is sexy gory and has swearing but it is not as graphic as people say. The TV show is WAY more graphic than the books. A ten or eleven year old can handle it. My ten year old liked it too. But when the book said the C word i said "Bleep". Show more.
How to Read the Game of Thrones Books in Order
A Clash of Kings. November 16, 1998. A Storm of Swords. August 8, 2000. A Feast for Crows. November 8, 2005. A Dance with Dragons. July 12, 2011. first book in A Song of Ice and Fire's A Game of ...
A Game Of Thrones preview by George R.R. Martin
George R.R. Martin. 4.56. 12,218 ratings135 reviews. This is a preview edition of A Game of Thrones, and contains only the opening chapters. This edition is NOT the entire book. Genres Fantasy Fiction Epic Fantasy Science Fiction Science Fiction Fantasy Epic. 96 pages, Paperback. First published January 1, 1996. Book details & editions.
Game of Thrones Books in Order: Complete Series List
George R.R. Martin has released five out of a planned seven Game of Thrones books and is currently writing the sixth novel, The Winds of Winter. A seventh novel, A Dream of Spring, is planned. While there are technically five books that have been released, both A Storm of Swords and A Dance of Dragons have been split into two separate novels as ...
The Original Reviews of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones
How did critics react to the first volume of George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series in 1996? Read excerpts from four reviews that praised the rich characters, complex plot and evocative settings, but also noted the lack of dragons and the slow pace.
Game of Thrones: the full series review
GoT's series finale split the audience, but the adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books is much more than a death-filled final season and episode. We look back at the ...
Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones. 89% 337 Reviews Avg. Tomatometer 85% 50,000+ Ratings Avg. Audience Score George R.R. Martin's best-selling book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" is brought to the screen as HBO ...
I'm Far More Excited For The Next Game Of Thrones Spinoff After HBO's
That feels even more likely when looking at the history of other, rejected Game of Thrones spinoffs.HBO canceled Bloodmoon after a $30 million pilot had already been filmed; even the Dance of the Dragons went through various failed stages of development before it eventually became House of the Dragon.Combine all of these elements together, and it becomes even more exciting that there is an ...
Game of Thrones TV Review
Our review: Parents say ( 190 ): Kids say ( 364 ): As with most HBO originals, this series benefits greatly from the budget and talent poured into its execution. Game of Thrones is an expertly produced epic and well acted, making it one of the most critically acclaimed series in history. It's easy to get drawn into the machinations of Westeros ...